Tip 5 - A little trick to help even your shyest team members want to get involved

A real-life example of why psychological safety matters

Here are some stats from a webinar we hosted recently:

• Number of participants: 65

• Number of questions asked out loud by participants: 1

• Number of questions asked in the chat: 6

• Number of questions asked anonymously in the chat: 10

• Number of anonymous upvotes on questions: 35

Why are 35 people happy to upvote a question while only 1 was willing to speak out loud?

Please don’t make me answer a question

In 2020, my company started working with a new client. Five of our developers worked with three of our client’s developers remotely. They had virtual meetings everyday where they chatted, shared what they were doing, and asked any questions. After one month, everyone was miserable. Very miserable.

We made one tiny change to the team, and two months later, that team became the happiest team in our company and have been at or near the top ever since. (We know this because we measure happiness).

So what was wrong?

After observing a couple of group meetings, we saw that nobody was talking. Everyone was speaking politely to each other, but they weren’t conversing freely. They weren’t being honest, they weren’t sharing ideas, and they certainly weren’t challenging each other. No one felt safe to take even the smallest risk. So, looking out for their own well-being, no-one said anything that could have been perceived as “wrong”.

I’m sure you’ve been on a massive Zoom call, or at a big group meeting where the host has asked if anyone has any questions and you don’t want to put your hand up for fear of saying the wrong thing. They felt the same.

So how can you feel safer at work?

The key lesson here is that it is not your responsibility to feel safe; it is the responsibility of the rest of your team or your company to make you feel safe. You can’t just say to yourself  “be braver”, “speak up” or “don’t worry, they won’t bite”; it won’t work.

So what did we do?

We simply changed how the meetings were run. Instead of putting all the participants in a situation where they didn’t feel comfortable, we adapted the format to help everyone feel they could be themselves. For example, instead of asking everyone to give their opinions out loud (and potentially put themselves on the spot), we gave them the opportunity to think about their answers and write them down instead, first anonymously, and then later with their names. In fact, to begin with, we even gave our team the questions an hour before the meeting.

At work everyone should feel safe saying what they want to say

The result?

Communication soared, performance improved, code quality increased and everyone was happier.

So what happened?

There are various ways to help people feel psychologically safe in the workplace, but one of the easiest ways is to minimise the chances of them feeling they are going to make a mistake.

By giving your team questions before a meeting, they can think about them beforehand. By asking them to write them down in their own time, they do not feel under pressure to give an answer there and then. By giving them the opportunity to contribute anonymously, they can take risks.

The wonderful thing about psychological safety is, in the right environment, it gets stronger over time. So even though our team started by adding ideas anonymously in writing, nowadays they freely debate and challenge our client even on the most contentious issues.

So this week’s tip.

If there is someone in your team that you feel isn’t saying as much as you think they want to, make it easier for them to contribute. Make them feel comfortable taking risks. Give them the meeting agenda first, tell them ahead of time what you’ll be discussing, or let them write their answers instead of having to speak them out.

And …  at your next big staff meeting or webinar, at the end, don’t ask people if they have any questions and make them speak out in front of everyone else (like we did). Give them a way to ask anonymously. They’ll feel safer, you’ll get more questions and everyone will be happier 🙂. 

Psychological safety is the bedrock for workplace happiness. It is argued that you cannot be happy at work unless you feel safe, so if you want your team to be happy this is a great place to start.

Useful free tools that we use:

metroretro - a meeting tool so participants can contribute by writing

slido - an online tool to allow users to ask questions anonymously 

…

If you’re new to the blog I recommend reading the first article in the series - what makes people happy at work. This will give you an overview of the basics of happiness in the workplace and the areas you need to address when looking at workplace wellbeing.

Next week … A psychological hack to end conflict in your office.