Compass No.34
Psychological safety, distancing, and childhood hobbies as a source of inspiration
Thought provoking quotes
In 1999 Harvard Business School professor, Amy C. Edmonson, coined the term psychological safety. In her book, The Fearless Organization, Edmonson defines psychological safety as, “the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking. The concept refers to the experience of feeling able to speak up with relevant ideas, questions, or concerns. Psychological safety is present when colleagues trust and respect each other and feel able – even obligated – to be candid.”
In the book, Edmonson responds to the question: “Can you have too much psychological safety?”
“My view is that interpersonal fear is never particularly helpful at work…What today’s leaders need to understand is that people spontaneously set an invisible threshold that governs when they speak and what they speak up about. The problem is that most people set the level too high when they’re at work…I’m not saying that it isn’t possible for the threshold to be set too low, thereby unleashing all kinds of unhelpful or inappropriate voices, but rather that this occurs less often than one might expect.”
Insights from the current book on my desk
L.David Marquet’s latest book, written with Michael A. Gillepsie, is called Distancing: How Great Leaders Reframe to Make Better Decisions. In the book, Marquet and Gillepsie explore how the use of a concept called “psychological distance” can be used to help leaders and individuals reach higher levels of thought abstraction where we are better able to see the bigger picture and access more objective levels of decision making.
Marquet and Gillepsie outline the high level technique with a compelling case study looking at former Intel CEO, Gordon Moore, and president, Andrew Grove. They write about a pivotal momental in the mid-1980s when the executives were weighing a pivot decision surrounding the company’s future: stick with Intel’s legacy memory chips or shift the company’s focus to microprocessors?
Both Moore and Grove had been with Intel since its inception in 1960 and struggled with the decision for over a year (even though it might have seemed like the movement into microprocessors was a relatively straightforward decision at the time). They were attached to the memory chip product and it seemed too painful to walk away!
Finally, in the middle of 1985, Grove posed a question that finally unlocked a new frame of thinking: “If we were kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what do you think he would do?” Moore answered without hesitation, “He would get us out of memories.” Intel shifted to producing microprocessors shortly thereafter.
In writing about the situation, Marquet and Gillepsie write, “When Moore and Grove metaphorically walked out the door and came back as ‘their replacements,’ they each exited their self immersed state, became someone else, and looked at their situation from a distance. That neutral and objective perspective allowed them to detach from their ego, alogn with the need to defend it and all their past decisions. They dispelled the social thereat and the threat to their identity by removing the oldest and most persistent barrier to seeing the situation clearly: themselves.”
Prompt inspired by a recent interview
In last week’s interview, I spoke with writer, coach, and creative Charlotte Jackson about navigating a season of feeling stuck and the path she took to reignite her creativity. That path culminated in the co-creation of transformational projects such as Reading Rhythms and CANDID.
When I asked her about the advice she would give to another young person who was feeling stuck and unsure of how to begin working toward a change, she said this:
“I would say do something that excites you, and if you're not sure where to start, I think the best way to remember is to go back to what lit you up as a kid and try to make a new friend that you have to explain yourself to. In resurfacing some of your favorite movies or your hobbies or sources of inspiration, things come back online, and presenting them to a new person is part of that.”
I don’t think Charlotte’s prompt needs any more explanation. Give it a try!