Team Development? Safety First
Are you involved in developing a team – maybe a team you lead, or your peer group? This simple principle can make all the difference:
people and teams will develop to the degree that they feel safe.
What do I mean by safe? Oh c’mon, you know!
Are you aware, in some conversations or meetings, of suddenly feeling unsafe? Do you notice when the mood in the room shifts to a threatened, defensive environment? That’s what unsafe feels like.
When we’re working with people, sometimes we just want to push them to do better, or get the truth on the table. The tricky thing is, we’ll only be able to get better results, or the truth on the table in a productive way, to the extent that we have created a safe environment in which to do so.
Without safety, we can’t do anything.
So what creates safety?
Lots of things, and the most important of them all is rapport – your rapport with individuals and the group, and their rapport with each other.
Start with rapport, and focus on rapport as a success measure for your team. Does rapport mean always agreeing? Absolutely not. Rapport means we can disagree and stay in right relationship with each other.
Try it and see. And remember, safety first.
Leave a Reply
