Learner safety

Being able to grow and develop skills on the job is both motivating and helps the team to build the collective muscle to meet new challenges. But sometimes the fear of getting it wrong means that it's just not quite as safe as we may think to speak up.

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[00:00:00] Pia: Being able to grow and develop skills on the job is both motivating and helps the team to build the collective muscle to meet new challenges. But sometimes the fear of getting it wrong means that it's just not quite as safe as we may think to speak up. Today's connect looks at how to help members speak up, ask questions, and seek the feedback that will really matter. I'm Pia.

[00:00:24] Dan: And I'm Dan, and this is Squadify Connects. The second level of psychological safety, according to Dr. Tim Clark, is learner safety. This means being able to ask questions, give and receive feedback, experiment, and yes, make mistakes. Some team members at this stage will provide feedback to each other and ask for feedback themselves.

[00:00:47] Pia: Yeah, it really requires, A degree of courage and vulnerability, which is important to acknowledge in the team as an agreed way that the team can expect its team members to behave. Here's three ways to bring greater learner safety to your team. Number one, discuss and use a term or a code, which is decided within the team and allows individuals to express their concerns, worries, or ask a question. The code word tunes the team in the feelings behind the team member's words and helps attune their awareness and empathy code. Words really work to actually tune people in to what the message is going to be.

[00:01:33] Dan: Point two is to follow that up with an acknowledgement and an open-ended question, so the code word is used and then use a question to explore more. How can the team benefit from this and expand their own learning.

[00:01:46] Pia: Number three, make feedback non-judgmental and really valuable to everyone's learning. It's such an important part of learner safety Focusing on specific examples and illustrating the impact they have is a powerful way to bring greater insights you can explore jointly together ways to change or improve. And it's much better to do that collaboratively than tell, otherwise we feel like we're back in the classroom being told off by our teacher, and that's not the way to get feedback.

[00:02:17] So we call this the EIC Model of Feedback, example, impact and Change, and we've attached it in the show notes so that you can practice it. Really simple and high impact.

[00:02:29] Dan: Now doing things differently, experimenting is, is another key part of learner safety and your action this week is to put an experiment into play. Find a code word for the group that helps individuals feel comfortable to express their concern, their question or thought that may be worrying them. Notice the impact on the team's energy and how they respond to that individual.

[00:02:51] What happened and what did you learn from the experiment?

[00:02:55] Pia: Building learner safety ultimately positively impacts contributor safety, which is the third level, which is contributing ideas and suggestion, and then also raising threats and risks in the team without any concept of fear. This is where Retrospectives, which is our Friday practice, become really powerful practices to review and learn as a team That enables true innovation to happen, and that's the focus of a future connect.