caerus-change

Opleiding tot Fearless Organization Practitioner (online)

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 09:28:24 GMT

Wat maakt een team echt succesvol? Volgens Harvard-professor Amy Edmondson is de belangrijkste factor hiervoor psychologische veiligheid . Dit betekent dat teamleden zich veilig voelen om ideeën te delen, fouten toe te geven en vragen te stellen zonder angst voor negatieve reacties. Het resultaat? Teams die beter presteren, minder fouten maken en innovatie omarmen.

De Kracht van Psychologische Veiligheid

Google voerde in 2016 een uitgebreid onderzoek uit naar het perfecte team. Hun conclusie na vijf jaar onderzoek onder 15.000 medewerkers: psychologische veiligheid is de nummer 1 factor voor team-effectiviteit. Edmondson’s jarenlange onderzoek naar dit onderwerp heeft wereldwijd organisaties geholpen om betere resultaten te behalen. Haar boek The Fearless Organization en de daarop gebaseerde Fearless Organization Scan (FOS) zijn krachtige instrumenten om psychologische veiligheid binnen teams te meten en verbeteren.

Wat is de Fearless Organization Scan?

De Fearless Organization Scan, gebaseerd op Edmondson’s onderzoek, meet de mate van psychologische veiligheid op individueel en teamniveau. De tool helpt inzicht te krijgen in hoe teamleden de veiligheid binnen hun werkomgeving ervaren en geeft handvatten om te verbeteren.

De scan richt zich op vier belangrijke dimensies:

Inclusie en diversiteit – Voelen teamleden zich welkom?
Houding tegenover risico en fouten – Is er ruimte om te experimenteren?
Bereidheid om te helpen – Werkt het team samen?
Open communicatie – Kunnen moeilijke onderwerpen worden besproken?

Review

Het creëren van een organisatie/team waar ruimte is voor feedback, leren en innovatie staat bij veel bedrijven hoog op de agenda. De Fearless Organisation practitioners training van Caerus heeft mij veel gebracht als extern facilitator maar zeker ook nu in mijn huidige leiderschapsrol. De certificering maakt dat ik met vertrouwen en energie groepen kan begeleiden, maar zeker ook de basis van de Leaders Toolkit dagelijks gebruik.

- Julie de Widt-Bakker, Head of Corporate Communications @bol

Word een Fearless Organization Practitioner

Bij Caerus Change bieden we een uitgebreide certificeringsopleiding aan waarmee je leert om psychologische veiligheid binnen teams en organisaties te vergroten. Voor het eerst wordt het programma vanaf 7 maart 2025 in het Nederlands aangeboden . Dit is jouw kans om een impactvolle verandering te realiseren.

Voor wie is deze opleiding?

E xterne professionals: consultants, coaches en facilitators die met klanten willen werken aan psychologische veiligheid.
Interne professionals : HR-specialisten, leiders of L&D-professionals die hun teams willen ondersteunen naar een betere samenwerking en innovatie.

Wat leer je tijdens de opleiding?

De opleiding bestaat uit vier live online workshops, twee individuele supervisie sessies en een praktijkopdracht. Je leert onder andere:

Hoe je de Fearless Organization Scan inzet om psychologische veiligheid te meten.
Resultaten te interpreteren en om te zetten naar verbeterstrategieën.
Hoe je een cultuur van vertrouwen en openheid creëert binnen teams.

Waarom kiezen voor deze opleiding?

Praktische tools : Zet theorie om in direct toepasbare kennis.
Persoonlijke begeleiding : Werk met ervaren trainers en ontvang supervisie tijdens je praktijkcase.
Community : Word onderdeel van een wereldwijde gemeenschap van professionals die psychologische veiligheid bevorderen.

Praktische informatie

Startdatum Nederlandse Cohort : 7 maart 2025
Tijden workshops : 10:00 – 13:00 (CET)
Prijs : €2550 + BTW per persoon
Locatie : Online via Zoom

Meld je aan voor deze opleiding

Wil jij bijdragen aan succesvolle, veilige en innovatieve teams? Meld je vandaag nog aan voor de Fearless Organization Practitioner opleiding.

Leveraging psychological safety to foster a growth mindset culture in organizations

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 12:14:49 GMT

In today’s rapidly changing and unpredictable world—often referred to as the VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous)—organizations face increasingly complex challenges. Wicked problems, such as unexpected disruptions or poorly defined issues, demand a mindset shift. For organizations to thrive, they must cultivate a culture rooted in a growth mindset. But this can only flourish in an environment where psychological safety is prioritized.

As Amy Edmondson, a pioneer in the field of psychological safety, emphasizes, "Psychological safety is a prerequisite for high performance and learning."

Why Psychological Safety Matters in the VUCA World

A VUCA environment demands agility, innovation, and collaboration—qualities that can only emerge in a psychologically safe workplace. Psychological safety, a group dynamic phenomenon, ensures team members feel safe to voice opinions, ask questions, admit mistakes, and take calculated risks without fear of judgment or retribution. It is the foundation for creativity and collective problem-solving. Without it, avoidance behaviors emerge, reducing collaboration and increasing complexity.

As Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, pointed out, “Creating psychological safety that allows people to push themselves has been the game changer.” His efforts to instill a growth mindset at Microsoft have not only enhanced individual and organizational performance but also fostered a workplace culture that celebrates learning and growth.

Growth Mindset: The Catalyst for Learning Organizations

A growth mindset, a concept developed by Carol Dweck, is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. This mindset contrasts sharply with a fixed mindset, which views intelligence as static. Employees with a growth mindset embrace challenges, learn from failures, and persist in the face of difficulties. This attitude is essential in navigating the uncertainties of the VUCA world.

Amy Edmondson’s research highlights how psychological safety creates the conditions necessary for a growth mindset to thrive. Her studies show that teams with high psychological safety are more likely to experiment, take risks, and learn from failures—all critical components of a learning organization.

Building a Culture of Psychological Safety and Growth Mindset

Encourage Candor and Frequent Feedback: Open and honest communication fosters trust and reduces fear. Leaders should actively seek and provide constructive feedback.
Promote Appropriate Risk-Taking and Intelligent Failure: Normalize failure as a learning opportunity. Celebrate the insights gained from unsuccessful attempts.
Cultivate Safe Conversations: Use practices such as active listening, empathetic questioning, and non-judgmental responses to create a supportive environment.
Engage in Inner Work: Recognize and manage personal values, triggers, and emotional patterns. This self-awareness enables individuals to better navigate group dynamics and contribute to a supportive environment to collaborate more effectively.

Practical Steps for Leaders

Model the Behavior: Leaders set the tone. Demonstrate vulnerability, admit mistakes, and show curiosity.
Redefine Success: Shift focus from outcomes to learning processes. Celebrate growth and effort rather than only results.
Facilitate Learning Opportunities: Provide resources and spaces for skill development and innovation.

Conclusion

Psychological safety and a growth mindset are not just complementary concepts; they are prerequisites for success in today’s complex world. As Amy Edmondson’s groundbreaking work has shown, psychological safety enables teams to learn, adapt, and innovate in the face of uncertainty. By intentionally fostering an environment where employees feel safe and encouraged to learn, organizations can become true learning organizations—resilient, innovative, and ready to tackle whatever challenges lie ahead.

Get in contact

At Caerus Change, we specialize in providing training programs that empower organizations to embed psychological safety and a growth mindset into their culture. Our expert-led sessions equip leaders with the tools and practices needed to foster learning organizations.

Additionally, we train professionals to deliver these programs, ensuring the principles of psychological safety and growth mindset are deeply rooted across teams. Let us help you transform your workplace into an environment of collaboration, innovation, and continuous growth.

How psychological safety drives innovation and high-performing teams

Wed, 18 Dec 2024 11:28:20 GMT

Psychological safety is crucial for high-performing teams that innovate and achieve breakthroughs. Research by Google’s Project Aristotle revealed that top-performing teams share a belief that mistakes won’t be punished, enabling the risk-taking, open communication, and creative thinking needed for innovation.

Why psychological safety matters

Psychological safety creates fertile ground for innovation and high performance in several ways:

Encourages risk-taking: Team members can share ideas and challenge the status quo without fear of negative repercussions, fostering unconventional solutions.
Promotes positive emotions: Trust, curiosity, and inspiration broaden thinking, making teams more resilient, adaptable, and persistent when solving complex problems.
Enables creativity: A safe environment supports humour, solution-finding, and divergent thinking, leading to innovative outcomes.
Builds trust: Increased oxytocin levels promote trust and collaboration, which are essential in demanding, high-stakes environments.
Encourages learning behavior: Teams openly discuss errors, seek feedback, and experiment with new approaches, essential for continuous improvement and adaptability.

The cost of an unsafe environment

When team members feel unsafe to express themselves, it can stifle growth and innovation:

Suppression of ideas: Fear of judgment or ridicule limits diverse perspectives and informed decision-making.
Reluctance to share mistakes: A punitive environment prevents learning from errors and addressing potential issues early.
Reduced flexibility: Teams become less adaptable and struggle to respond effectively to challenges.

Creating psychological safety is not just about being "nice" – it’s a strategic imperative for innovation and exceptional performance.

10 Practical Tips to Foster Psychological Safety

These tips are inspired by the work of Amy Edmondson, a leading researcher on psychological safety.

1. Promote Open Communication

Encourage sharing of ideas, opinions, and concerns. Leaders can:

Actively seek diverse perspectives.
Listen attentively and value all contributions.
Create an inclusive atmosphere where everyone feels heard.

2. Normalize Failure

Reframe mistakes as learning opportunities:

Encourage experimentation.
Celebrate lessons learned from failures rather than assigning blame.

3. Cultivate Empathy

Remind team members of their shared humanity by acknowledging:

Individual experiences and motivations.
The importance of understanding others’ perspectives.

4. Speak Human-to-Human

Use positive language and address universal workplace needs like respect, competence, and autonomy to build a supportive environment.

5. Plan for Reactions

Anticipate responses to sensitive topics and prepare evidence-based counterarguments to encourage constructive discussions.

6. Approach Conflict as Collaboration

Focus on achieving mutually beneficial outcomes rather than "winning." This encourages rational problem-solving and strengthens relationships.

7. Replace Blame with Curiosity

Approach disagreements with genuine curiosity rather than accusations to create a culture of openness.

8. Ask for Feedback

Solicit feedback on communication styles and encourage constructive criticism to foster trust and continuous improvement.

9. Assess Team Dynamics

Use tools like surveys or one-on-one meetings to gauge psychological safety levels. Pay attention to nonverbal cues like tone and body language.

10. Reinforce Safe Behaviors

Acknowledge and reward actions like open communication and respectful disagreement to embed psychological safety into the team’s culture.

Get in contact with us

As Amy Edmondson, a pioneer in psychological safety research, emphasizes, fostering openness, trust, and collaboration is essential for teams to thrive. At Caerus Change, we offer opportunities for both aspiring trainers and teams to experience Amy’s proven methodology in action.

Whether you’re looking to become a certified trainer and guide others in establishing psychological safety, or you’re part of a team ready to unlock its potential for innovation, growth, and resilience, we’re here to help.

Interested in learning more? Contact us for a free consultation and discover how Amy Edmondson's research-backed approach can transform your training or team success.

Inviting Participation. Psychological Safety, Blogging and Emergent Practice

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 10:49:22 GMT

Inviting Participation:

Psychological Safety, Blogging & Emergent Practice

Those of you who are familiar with David Snowden’s Cynefin framework will have a sense that the days of ‘best practice’ are pretty much dead and gone in most organisations. I’m struggling to think of one that has a simple and stable operating model or market conditions these days. Certainly, most organisations dipped into chaos to varying degrees during the Covid pandemic where novel practices arose out of crisis. As we emerge out of the latest wave of the pandemic the question is – how do we equip leaders, teams and organisations to genuinely thrive and flourish in complex and complicated operating environments?

Those of you who have navigated your way to The Fearless Organization and the thought leadership of Amy C Edmondson will no doubt have done so as you see it as a practical approach to this question. If you’ve undertaken training with us over the last couple of years you are now part of a growing global community of practice .

This blog is an invitation to that community to participate further. Further in what?

Sharing good and emergent practice. Whether you’ve trained in using the Fearless Organization Scan (FOS) or the Leader’s Toolkit (LTK) we’d love to hear about your learning in applying them in organizations. Every time I facilitate a debrief on the FOS I discover something new about the power of the seven questions and what they reveal about team dynamics and creating the conditions for high functioning teams. Every time I facilitate a workshop on LTK or apply it in my own working life I learn something new about the interaction of Setting The Stage, Inviting Participation and Responding Productively.

So, this is Blog #1 of what I hope will be many. Certainly, the Caerus Change team intend to share ‘notes from the field’ regularly. It’s part of co-creating a learning organization and fits with one of our core values of abundance . So, if you’re reading this and feel inspired to contribute, please send Sarah@Caeruschange.com your blog. Within reason, we won’t look to edit it. We simply request that it meets three basic criteria:

It’s about the practice of psychological safety
You share your learning ‘from the field’
You go one step further, and share some learning from ‘mistakes’

It doesn’t have to be grandiose. It doesn’t need to be a five-year research study or a neatly presented case study – it can just be emergent insight and learning from doing the work. One aspect of our vision at Caerus Change is to:

Be at the centre of the global conversation about what works through sharing ongoing action research and compelling case studie s

Another is to:

Grow a vibrant Community of Practice in Europe and around the world

We’re already doing this but this blog is in service of both and encouragement to contribute to something generative and bigger than us all. My fundamental belief is that collective intelligence is always superior to any one individual. Knowing that we’ve trained hundreds of people (and that continues to grow), if everyone shares some learning it wouldn’t take long to have enough for The Fearless Organization: The Field Book. Will that happen? Who knows. But what we can begin to do is document stories, learning and what works in practice to increase psychological safety, collaboration, innovation and performance in complex and complicated operating environments. We all learn together and from each other as a community of practice.

Taking a steer from Amy about vulnerability, why don’t I go first?

Bad News Doesn’t Get Better With Age

I recently ran Introduction to Psychological Safety sessions for about 1,100 people leaders in an organisation that fulfils a very important purpose for the UK and which works with hazardous materials every day. No wonder that psychological safety would be important to extend and deepen an existing culture of physical safety. In one of the MS teams sessions with 200+ leaders, having broken off into small breakout rooms to discuss the seven questions of the FOS, we came back into main plenary and invited participation. What had come up in discussions? One of the themes that emerged was about our relationship to mistakes in organizational life, and in an environment where mission critical projects are involved, what it’s like to have to share bad news upwards. ‘Do I tell them what they want to hear or do I tell them what’s actually going on?’ As this dialogue started to unfold one of the Executive Directors shared a simple statement that communicated something very powerful about what he valued as a member of the Executive Team: “Bad news doesn’t get better with age.” The cultural transformation journey is just beginning with this organisation but in micro-moments like these something important happens in changing shared narrative (and behaviour).

Avoiding Risk: The Paradox of a Safety Culture

Three months earlier I ran a similar session for the top 70 leaders in the same organisation. We surveyed them all on the FOS and again, invited them to discuss the seven questions in light of their lived experience at work. As always with inquiry, many interesting themes started to emerge. When we got to talking about our relationship to risk in organisational life, again a very powerful moment emerged from the dialogue. Given the highly hazardous nature of their work, risk is an interesting topic in this organisation. As the dialogue unfolded and the mic worked around the room it found its way to a member of the executive team. Here’s what he said: “It strikes me that over the last ten years or so we’ve been avoiding risk. Given the imperative we now have about innovation we all have to actively manage risk and calibrate for it …pretty much every conversation I have with x (the CEO) is about this.” Again, this was a key moment of the shared narrative of this executive team. There’s much further to go for this organization but their journey has begun. One of those next steps will be running an intact team debrief on the FOS with the CEO and her executive team, and then doing the same for each of its members and their direct reports.

The more I practice inquiry with groups and teams the more I understand that I am not there to teach them anything. They often request an ‘expert’ on psychological safety but that can be a dangerous hook to seduce the ego. After Setting The Stage / Framing The Work , the best way I can demonstrate any kind of expertise in psychological safety is by Inviting Participation and Responding Productively . The team or group always then access their own collective intelligence about the topic and I continue to be in awe about what I learn from others about how it plays out in day-to-day organisational life.

Learning From ‘Mistakes’

Here’s a medium sized one to begin with. I’m sure some bigger ones will emerge over time :)

Size Matters

Last year a global pharmaceutical company we’ve been working with requested a FOS debrief for their Head of Global Pharma Manufacturing and her team. Essentially this was the leadership team guiding performance and delivery at manufacturing sites in Europe, the Americas and APAC regions in the middle of the pandemic. We have a standard agreement with the company about pricing and scope/size of team for just one facilitator (up to 12). On this basis we began the work. A little way into the contracting with the leader it turned out they wanted to survey 15 team members for the debrief. At this point I should have re-contracted and brought in a second facilitator, but I shied away from having a conversation of compassionate candour about the implications of such a large team and the additional potential cost – instead I took it on.

Many clients when they first start working with us wonder why we recommend a minimum of 4 hours for a debrief on just 7 questions. For many fast-paced organizations it just doesn’t compute. But those who have trained with us know the importance we place on conversational turn taking and inquiry rounds. Given these principles, running an effective debrief is simply a matter of maths. If the intention is to hear from each team member on each of the four dimension of the FOS, the more team members you have, the less time each has. As teams get bigger two things are likely to happen: 1) either the facilitator lets go of the process and the team plays out its usual pattern of who speaks up and who doesn’t or 2) given time constraints everyone shares, but brief and shallow. Insight dialogue gets squeezed. Paradoxically the source of transformational insight usually resides within outliers – those who score lower on the FOS. If the team really want to understand how to increase psychological safety, collaboration, innovation and performance in the team it helps to lean in and listen up to those that don’t feel psychologically safe. If time is squeezed, that’s less likely to happen.

On reflection the session I facilitated was OK. I didn’t drop the process but given the size of the team and time constraints, contributions were squeezed. Transformational insight was accessed. One Head of Region identified from Attitude to Risk & Failure that they needed to recontract with their Global Head about the trials and rapid-prototyping they wanted to do in their region – they wanted to do more. As a team they also identified that they wanted to focus on Open Conversations . During the pandemic they had switched from regular 2-day face to face meetings where they had an opportunity to deep dive on big issues and joint problem solve wicked problems, to a pattern of busy, full agendas of virtual ‘download’ meetings. The FOS gave the team the insight that they needed to re-instigate a forum to access their collective intelligence on key wicked problems.

My reflection after the session was that while the team did leave with individual and collective actionable insight 1) I was exhausted from holding the process of inclusion for so many and teasing out insight from more reticent/introverted team members, and 2) with a second facilitator everyone would have experienced a much more powerful session with far deeper insight. Fortunately, with learning you usually get an opportunity to apply it. I’ve just been asked to facilitate a FOS debrief in the same company with the Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer and her team. In the initial brief one of the first questions I asked was ‘how big is the team?’ The answer: ‘15’. Suffice to say, I won’t be making the same mistake again – I requested a second facilitator and provided a costing for that. I’ve also applied this same principle now with another client – the rule of thumb we have agreed is that if there is 10 or more team members we bring in a second facilitator. It leads to better outcomes and transformational insight. There is such a thing as false economy.

I hope this blog offers a sense of a dialogue beginning or perhaps simply continuing. The invitation is a genuine one…to participate. All ideas, questions, concerns and mistakes are truly welcome.

Blogs to Follow:

Collective Intelligence Is Not The Same As Group Think
Advanced Facilitation: How our Action Logic influences our capacity to facilitate transformational change
Facilitating Transformational FOS Debriefs: Guidelines & Suggestions
Be Present, Be With, Hold Space

Join our next cohort of the Psychological Safety Internal Practitioner Program

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 11:59:23 GMT

Psychological Safety Internal Practitioner Program - 4 March 2022

"You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions" ~ Naguib Mahfouz

We are privileged to work with Amy Edmondson and the Fearless Organization to guide psychological safety dialogues in teams and organizations.

How can you both deliver an amazing product or result and create a working environment where all voices are heard and everybody feels valued and appreciated? How do you make use of the collective intelligence of your team?

March 4 2022

We will start our next cohort of the Psychological Safety Practitioner Program in March. At the end of the program you will be certified to work with the Fearless Organization Scan, to introduce the concept of psychological safety in teams and organizations facilitate the dialogue and get started with practical interventions.

If you're interested in joining this cohort, follow this link or send us a note at hello@caeruschange.com - we'd love to hear from you.

We ask Amy Edmondson - what is the difference between psychological safety and trust?

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 12:17:19 GMT

Psychological Safety vs Trust

The inner and the outer work of psychological safety. An interesting topic to have a dialogue about with Prof. Amy Edmondson.

https://lnkd.in/djB8ne t