In one corner of the parking garage near my office, there’s no reception for a car’s satellite radio.
This is clearly broken, but it’s also not a problem. Certainly not a
problem worth anyone’s attention when there are so many other problems
to be addressed.
Problems, by definition, can be fixed. But they might not be worth the focus and effort.
Letting these go is important, because it frees us up to work on the things that most people don’t think are problems that are worth fixing.
Why are we more likely to get tasks done than to take on new initiatives?
Checking something off a to-do list requires far less emotional energy than adding something to the list was in the first place.
As is often the case, “resistance” is the answer.
It’s easy to type a book, hard to write one. That’s because writing one involves making choices.
The effort to perform a task we’ve done before is known in advance.
So are the risks. There’s social pressure to do what we promised, and
little friction in the way. It’s work, but not challenging.
Initiatives, on the other hand, go the other way around. The effort
and repercussions are unknown, and in many settings, the social pressure
to accept the status quo is high.
The most important work we do is to make decisions. Decisions don’t seem
effortful (turn left or right, say yes or no) but the apparent risk and
emotional labor is real. Hard decisions are hard because of the story
we tell ourselves about repercussions and responsibility.
Once we acknowledge that taking initiative (which is more accurately
described as ‘offering initiative’) requires effort, we can allocate the
time and resources to do it well.
Tanmay Vora describes the "7 Deadly Sins of Psychological Safety" in this blogpost.
A must read for executives, managers, supervisors ☺
Arnold
7 Deadly Sins of Psychological Safety
7 Deadly Sins of Psychological Safety
Language
plays a crucial role in building a culture of safety. This post
outlines ways to communicate psychological safety (and seven deadly
sins)
Tanmay Vora
Updated on
Language plays a critical role in fostering psychological safety.
Let me illustrate this by two
contrasting examples. In one instance, a project manager failed to
deliver on an agreed scope, and when senior leaders intervened, the
manager was harshly asked, “Who’s standing on the fault line? Whose
salary should we deduct for this?” This punitive language created a
hostile environment, discouraging openness and learning.
In a different scenario, when a member
of my product development team made an error affecting a client’s
production database, the leader approached it differently. Instead of
blaming, he reiterated his confidence in the team leader saying, “I know
we’ve made a mistake, but I’m confident you can quickly fix this before
it causes any financial damage.” This response boosted morale and led
to a quick resolution. Later, during the retrospective, he asked, “What
can we learn from this to prevent it from happening again?” This shift
from blame to learning fostered reflection and improvement.
I read Tom Geraghty’s newsletter on Psychological Safety
with great interest. In a latest edition, Tom outlines Seven deadly
sins of pshchological safety. I highly recommend his newsletter if you
are someone who is trying build a psychologically safe culture. (Full post here)
Learning to be mindful of our
language is key to maturing as leaders. Our words shape workplace
culture, either encouraging risk-taking and innovation or stifling
initiative.
Here are seven deadly sins of psychological safety in a visual form.
Complement this reading with my earlier post on “Conversations that build psychological safety” by Amy Edmondson.
Below, a very interesting post about how one could unlock tacit knowledge (= the knowledge that is 'locked' within people (their experiences, skills, insights and judgements ... locked in their brains).
Een post van Seth Godin, iemand wiens blog ik al volg ... en die veel interessants te vertellen heeft :-)
Deze gaat over het maken van een audio opname waarin je je bekommernissen, ergernissen, ervaringen, hoop, .... over een bepaald thema, project, ... beschrijft.
Zodat je hier later kunt op terugvallen, als de nood het hoogst is.
The next time things are going well, when a project is about to
launch, when a meeting has been successful, when the sun is shining…
take your phone and go for a walk.
Hit record on an audio app and make a twenty-minute audiobook. Talk
about what you know, what you see, what you hope for. Talk about the
change you seek to make and how you’re going to get there.
And then save it.
Save it for when you need to hear from that person who recorded it.
Thanks to David Gurteen for pointing me to an older blog post of him, and to a newer blog post of Steve Denning (the “story telling” guru), who is talking about the same issue: the language used in HR Departments to describe people: Human Resources, or Human Capital, or Talents, and how this affects the management style.
Bottom line: inspire people to accomplish work that delights customers, instead of viewing people as things to manage.
