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Overview
Overview
Teams who are able to positively challenge each other can thrive through healthy discussions, and constant constructive feedback loops. It can also aid motivation by asking the important questions around why they are being asked to do certain tasks. To be able to positively challenge, teams need to create environments where people feel psychologically safe.
Introduction
Introduction
Positively challenging and creating psychological safety are interlinked. Teams who feel psychologically safe challenge each other in a way that focuses on solutions and progression. In particular new teams should spend time creating an environment where they feel psychologically safe - and teams who are struggling would benefit from improving this area too. Without that platform of safety, teams will struggle to perform at a high level and challenge each other in a healthy way.
Positively Challenging
Positively Challenging
Positively challenging means being confident and comfortable enough to speak up when you don’t agree, however the way you do this makes a big difference. Things to keep in mind are:
Not looking for blame or pointing fingers. It’s not about isolating people and making accusations. Finding out why things went wrong is fundamental to improving next time - but not in a way that’s looking to lay the blame firmly on others
Not causing tension. Pointing fingers or constant negativity will only lead to tension and a lack of trust
Not about only bringing issues rather than solutions. This attitude in teams can be really frustrating and will come across negatively. Teams should be encouraged to surface issues with a solutions focus - “this is an issue, how about we try this instead?”
Not being dismissive. Everyone has a right to their opinion and to surface ideas for discussion. Just shutting people down will demoralise them and eventually they will stop offering up ideas. Finding positive ways to embrace suggestions, even if they ultimately are not the right ones, is really important.
Positively challenging each other in teams breeds healthy discussions and will lead to teams making the right, collectively agreed decisions.
Creating Psychological Safety
Creating Psychological Safety
To get into a mindset to positively challenge each other, teams need to create an environment where they feel psychologically safe. What does that actually mean? In a nutshell, it means they feel safe to:
- Be themselves - engage in an unconstrained way
- Take risks - make mistakes and learn from them
- Raise problems and be comfortable approaching anyone for help
- Ask questions
- Disagree, expose issues, speak up and challenge the status quo
- Innovate & experiment - express ideas and seek out new opportunities
The Benefits of Creating Psychological Safety
The Benefits of Creating Psychological Safety
Picture from Halo Psychology from the article referenced in the further resources section below.This article from the World Economic Forum talks of the teams being in psychological danger. It loops back a lot of what we spoke about in the Positively Challenging section. Put basically:
Creating these safe environments leads to;
- Comfort in admitting mistakes,
- Learning from failure,
- Everyone openly sharing ideas
- Better innovation & decision making.
These are all signs of a team who have a healthy, safe working environment.
Everyone has a role to play in making sure teams feel safe to express themselves without hesitation, concern and allowing them to be themselves. That’s from your organisation’s leadership, down to each team member.
Running a session on contracting and creating team charters [link] will help teams achieve an environment where they feel safe, trust each other and positively challenge. Call out how you want to work as a team so everyone will feel safe to perform at the highest level they can.
Summary
Summary
Feeling psychologically safe in a team will mean team members feel valued, trusted, treated fairly, listened to, that their ideas and opinions matter, included (regardless of their status or title) and confident to take risks, fail, learn and improve. When teams successfully create this safety, they are in a much better position to positively challenge each other and have healthier discussions and debates to make better decisions and progress.
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