Rosenverse

This video is only accessible to Gold members. Log in or register for a free Gold Trial Account to watch.

Log in Register

Most conference talks are accessible to Gold members, while community videos are generally available to all logged-in members.

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

Gold
Thursday, September 8, 2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Share the love for this talk
Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It
Speakers: Alla Weinberg
Link:

Summary

The highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychological safety — the shared belief that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea. Studies show that psychological safety allows for moderate risk-taking, speaking your mind, creativity, and collaboration — just the types of behavior that lead to successful products and services. Creating psychological safety in a workplace - although at times a challenge - can be done. This interactive talk will present the key action steps that DesignOps professionals can immediately take to boost psychological safety in their design teams and create psychological safety between cross-functional teams.

Key Insights

  • Safety is a neurobiological state of the autonomic nervous system, distinct from but necessary for trust.

  • The autonomic nervous system has three states: safe (calm), mobilized (fight or flight), and immobilized (shutdown).

  • Triggers like angry emails or unexpected deadlines can push individuals from safe to mobilized or immobilized states.

  • Our brain deprioritizes rational thinking during mobilized or immobilized states, reducing IQ and peripheral vision.

  • Connection—the sense of being seen, heard, and valued—is key to moving individuals back up to a safe state.

  • Google's Project Aristotle found psychological safety to be the top factor for team effectiveness over individual traits.

  • Psychological safety enables candidness and vulnerability without fear of judgment or punishment.

  • Leadership changes can either erode or uplift psychological safety within an organization.

  • Remote work impacts psychological safety differently depending on team culture and individual preferences.

  • Psychological safety can be built or restored quickly through targeted team exercises and relationship repair.

Notable Quotes

"Safety is a state of our nervous system, not simply a feeling or relationship."

"Our nervous system does not know the difference between a tiger and an angry email from a manager—it just senses danger."

"When we’re mobilized or immobilized, our IQ literally drops by half and our peripheral vision narrows."

"Connection is the energy between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued without judgment."

"You cannot have trust if you don’t have safety first."

"Psychological safety means if I make a mistake on our team, the people won’t disconnect from me."

"If there isn’t safety and connection, you get a culture of transaction and silence that kills innovation."

"Leadership usually determines whether psychological safety is built or eroded in a culture."

"Remote work can uplift psychological safety through flexibility, or erode it if in-person connection is lost."

"Psychological safety can be created or rebuilt very quickly with intentional team exercises."

Ask the Rosenbot
Andy Warr
Under My (Research) Umbrella: The Benefits and Challenges of Building a Unified Insights Function
2024 • Advancing Research 2024
Gold
Jon Fukuda
Theme One Intro
2022 • DesignOps Summit 2022
Gold
Anna Poznyakov
Get The Most Out Of Stakeholder Collaboration—and Maximize Your Research Impact
2021 • Advancing Research 2021
Gold
Carla Casariego
DesignOps in Wonderland
2019 • DesignOps Summit 2019
Gold
Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
Leading through the long tail of trauma
2022 • Advancing Research Community
Eric Shumake
Diagnosis UX: Building Influence in Healthcare Design
2026 • Rosenfeld Community
Erin Hoffman-John
This Game is Never Done: Design Leadership Techniques from the Video Game World
2017 • DesignOps Summit 2017
Gold
Uday Gajendar
The Rise of Meta-Design: A Starter Playbook
2022 • Enterprise Community
Ben Davies
Expert Panel: The Principles of Research Repository Design
2022 • Advancing Research 2022
Gold
Sheryl Cababa
Expanding your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Mark Templeton
Creating a Legacy: the ultimate experience
2017 • Enterprise Experience 2017
Gold
Sam Proulx
Accessibility: An Opportunity to Innovate
2022 • Design at Scale 2022
Gold
Ariel Kennan
Theme Two Intro
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Mariah Hay
Ethics in Tech Education: Designing to Provide Opportunity for All
2018 • Enterprise Experience 2018
Gold
Benjamin Real
Maturity Models: A Core Tool for Creating a DesignOps Strategy
2021 • DesignOps Summit 2021
Gold
Kit Unger
Theme 2: Discussion
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold

More Videos

Sheri Byrne-Haber

"Accessibility isn’t just about visible disabilities; it’s about invisible disabilities and situational impairments too."

Sheri Byrne-Haber

Accessibility at Scale

June 9, 2021

Prayag Narula

"The best products come from marrying analytics with human stories."

Prayag Narula Hannah Hudson

Empowering Designers to do Good Research

March 11, 2022

Janelle Estes

"Don't be precious but don't be reckless either when opening research access to others."

Janelle Estes

UX Research Trends

January 28, 2021

Craig Brookes

"We often get designed into a corner by trying to fix words at the end instead of involving content designers earlier."

Craig Brookes Andreas Huebner Morgan Quinn

"Just Make it Look Good" and Other Ways We're Misunderstood

June 11, 2021

Marc Fonteijn

"We design a community that would be missed if it were gone for our service design leaders."

Marc Fonteijn Ru Butler

Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)

December 3, 2024

Kate Towsey

"Managing vendors is a full-time job, and research ops teams often coordinate numerous vendors for tools and recruitment."

Kate Towsey

The State of ResearchOps: More Than Just Theory

June 20, 2019

Alla Weinberg

"Co-regulation means someone who is safe can help bring another out of a triggered state."

Alla Weinberg

Design Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It

September 9, 2022

Shawna Hein

"Slack channels and weekly meetings encourage cross-contract collaboration, avoiding duplication and sharing learnings across teams."

Shawna Hein Kevin Hoffman

Create a Cohesive Civic Design Practice Across Agency, Vendors, and Contracts

November 17, 2022

Tricia Wang

"Positive mutual regard helps uncover root causes behind people’s behaviors to build collaboration rather than combat."

Tricia Wang

SCALE: Discussion

June 15, 2018