Psychological Safety

Do you have open culture supporting curiosity for new things and new ways of working?

Looking back at one of my work place I realised that for the first time I had the pleasure to really work in open and safe environment where was no need to look smarter than you are. You know the feeling; regarding on our position we at least think we are expected to know answers to certain things and we really don’t want to show that we actually have no clue on the matter. In my last work place the openness made it possible to throw ideas and thoughts in the air and spontaneously discuss about them.

The best part was that the safe environment wasn’t one sided. My roommates openness influenced in it heavily. We developed a kind of pop-up brainstorming culture where we learned a lot from each other within those brief ad hoc sessions. Sometimes they were short and brief, and usually a bit longer 🙂 but always very fruitful. Even if the discussions would ramble we always came into conclusion which enabled us to continue the work through the roadblock that initiated the discussion.

The company’s open community enabled such a culture. We all were equal within our organisation. As self governed we didn’t need to think what our boss is thinking of the issue or how to present an idea to some committee. Even as the open discussions were encouraged in my earlier jobs as well, the opinions were always valued by the position in the organisation. Because we are in this box we cannot contribute to that box, and so on. Especially if it wasn’t the very next box in the organisation chart. Positions in the organisation and well defined job descriptions help us to understand what is expected of us, but they can limit individuals potential more than take full advantage of it.

Our room consisted from supporting functions. The great variety of different know-how fostered the atmosphere. The roles consisted of sales and marketing, UX, graphics, modern leadership development, strategy creation and productising. The topics varied of all kinds, actually so much that when others had difficulties to define what the actual topics in our room were, we started calling it The Härö-room — meaning the place to mess around 😀 But for us it was the highlights when the ad hoc brainstorming took place basically about anything one had on their mind — on and off duty.

So, do you have open culture supporting curiosity for new things and new ways of working, for real?

Take care of your organisation culture and tear down any restricting factors. Make sure your culture fosters psychological safety. Let your teams and individuals shine for real and not just pretentiously. And most of it all — lead with example.