Our Shih Tzu puppy, Carmella, was four months old when we brought her home. We were excited to have a new puppy, but she was not as enthusiastic about the new arrangement. Her world had just been turned around; she was living with strangers and placed in unfamiliar surroundings. Her behavior was guarded, and she minimized interactions with us. She was not willing to show her whole self or personality, and it was clear she did not trust us.
Fast forward eight months, and today, Carmella is a different animal. She seeks closeness and approval, and she is more than willing to share her feelings with us, whether we ask for them or not. She is not afraid to be herself. Before we could meet the true Carmella, she first needed to trust that it was safe to do so.
Not so fluffy
While people are not dogs, we do share the same basic core emotions.
Most learning and talent professionals know it well: That literal or figurative eyeroll from a senior leader who thinks that psychological safety course is fluff, and not worthy of spending training dollars on. Connecting ROI can be difficult.
Psychological safety is a relatively young concept, first introduced in conjunction with work team performance by scholar and author Amy Edmonson in 1999. In his book “The Four Stages of Psychological Safety,” author and LeaderFactor CEO Timothy R. Clark lists inclusion safety as the first stage of psychological safety.
Like a new dog, new team members want to feel included. Research shows that being excluded lights up the same regions of the brain as physical pain.
Our teams work best in a workplace that values diversity of thought, open and honest communication and a willingness to take risks. As a leader, nothing scares me more than having everyone on my team in full agreement with all my ideas. That “fluff” course on psychological safety is actually the key to higher performance, increased productivity and profit.
Most senior leaders will tell you that diversity of thought, sharing ideas and problem-solving as a team are important. However, most employees tell us that speaking up and pushing back is a career-limiting endeavor. Much like with our new puppy, we won’t see all that our employees bring to the team until they feel a sense of acceptance, belonging and safety.
Onboarding and the bottom line
Consider the standard onboarding process: We take great pains during the recruitment process to screen candidates, work them through multiple interviews and interview teams, screen and rescreen them so we are sure we select the “right” one. Then we bring them in, give them a few minutes with HR, call it orientation, show them around, introduce them to the team and then drop them off at their workstation.
The new team member is left to figure out what to do next. We tell them we are here if they have any questions, but they don’t want to “bother” all these busy people. Imagine if we told Carmella, “Here is where you sleep, food and water are near the kitchen and the bathroom is outside. Let me know if you have any questions.”
Onboarding is the first chance at establishing psychological safety for your new team member. All our painstaking recruiting efforts to select them will be minimized, or even worse, lost if we overlook it.
Leadership may say they have an open-door policy, express empathy, solicit and encourage questions, but they will get “crickets” if the employee does not feel like they belong. Passion for onboarding at every level, in every instance, is a critical organizational function that our leaders must feel as fanatical about as we do.
Onboarding also happens every day in your organization. Think about when employees change work teams, join a new project team or take on a new role. As L&D leaders, we can drive this message home at every level and create passion at every opportunity. Most senior leaders understand and respond to numbers. Focus on the metrics that support this argument: Recruiting dollars, turnover in year one of employment, engagement survey scores, team goal and operational success. You probably know which numbers your leadership team best responds to; keep them in front of them at every opportunity.
Most organizations are looking to create psychological safety from the top down when, in fact, it is a bottom-up activity. If you want your team members to share their opinions, take risks, flourish and bring their whole self to the team, start by building the best onboarding systems in your industry and a passion for executing at all levels of the organization.
Any organization looking to create a culture of psychological safety should begin with a thorough evaluation of the onboarding process. Here are a few suggestions:
- Interview recent hires and transfers, get their perspective on how accepted and supported they felt in the first 30 to 90 days in a new role.
- Consider a peer “buddy” program for new team members. Someone—not their manager—who can dedicate time each week during the onboarding process to guide the employee, answer questions and help them assimilate into the role.
- Solicit formal and informal feedback from the new employee throughout the onboarding process. Many organizations have probationary periods built in to evaluate employee performance. They are also evaluating us. That is critical information we should be capturing.
- Numbers, numbers, numbers. Develop reporting dashboards to track key metrics. You need passionate support from senior leadership and data is their passion. We want them to allow resources to dedicate time to onboarding, and they will support that if the data shows there is ROI.
The culture and support you give to new employees is the foundation on which they build their impression of your organization. They will bring their whole self to work when they feel welcome and included.
Yes, people are not puppies. We work hard to make our new pets feel welcome. So why not spread some of that love to our new team members?
