1.
Pramesh Vaidya
Regional Scrum Gathering Nepal 2020
September 6, 2020
Building Effective Teams by Fostering
Psychological Safety

2.
Who am I?
pramesh.vaidya@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/prameshvaidya/
Pramesh Vaidya

3.
What is a team?

4.
Effective Team

5.
Dynamics of a effective Team

6.
Variables not Significant
• Colocation of teammates
• Consensus-driven decision making
• Extroversion of team members
• Individual performance of team members
• Workload size
• Seniority
• Team size
• Tenure

7.
Navy SEALs
• Competent Team Members with a Special Skill
• Trust, Collaborative Climate
• High level of external support and recognition
• A High standard of Excellence
• Principled leadership, team leaders serving as coaches

8.
Psychological Safety
A climate where people feel safe enough to
take interpersonal risks by speaking up and
sharing concerns, questions, or ideas.
Amy Edmondson

9.
Why Psychological Safety?
• Drives higher engagement, collaboration, and participation
• Increases creativity, conflict resolution, and overall well-being.
Productive
5070
Engaged
76
Likely to Stay
50
Study by The Science of Creating High-Performing Teams

10.
What Psychological Safety is not?
• It is not about being nice
• It is not a personality factor
• It is not just another word for trust
• It is not about lowering performance standards

11.
Reference Case

12.
GROW Model

13.
What is GROW Coaching Model?
GOAL
• What do you want?
• What more do you want?
REALITY
• What is happening now?
• Exactly what is happening now?
OPTIONS
• What could you do?
• What else could you do?
WILL
• What will you do?
• Precisely what will you do?

14.
GROW Coaching Model
GROW is not coaching in itself: “even dictators can use GROW!”
Coaching is about raising awareness and responsibility: helping
them to learn rather than teaching them
GROW coaching is so effective that you can even use it to
coach yourself

15.
GROW Coaching Model
• What would you like to work on?
• What is your goal related to this issue?
• What are the benefits for you in achieving this goal?
• What will it be like if you achieve your goal?
• What action have you taken so far?
• What is moving you toward your goal?
• What is getting in the way?
• What different kind of options do you have to
achieve your goal?
• What else could you do?
• What are the principal advantages and
disadvantages of each option?
• Which options will you choose to act on?
• When are you going to start each action?
• How committed are you, on a scale of 1–10, to taking
each of these actions?
• If it is not a 10, what would make it a 10?
GOAL REALITY
OPTIONS WILL

16.
GROW: Psychological Safety
• What does psychological safety mean for the team?
• Why psychological safety matters for the team?
• What will it enable you to do?
Use of Survey Questionnaire:
• If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you
• Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough
issues
• People on this team sometimes reject others for being different.
• It is safe to take a risk on this team.
• It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
• No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that
undermines my efforts.
• Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents
are valued and utilized.
• Demonstrate engagement
• Show understanding
• Be inclusive in interpersonal settings
• Be inclusive in decision-making
• Show confidence and conviction without appearing
inflexible
• Which options will you choose to act on?
• When are you going to start each action?
• How committed are you, on a scale of 1–10, to taking
each of these actions?
• If it is not a 10, what would make it a 10?
GOAL REALITY
OPTIONS WILL

17.
Workshop

18.
Fostering Psychological Safety
• Frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution
problem
• Acknowledge your own fallibility
• Model curiosity and ask lots of questions

19.
References
“The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the
Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” by Amy Edmondson
“Guide: Understand team effectiveness” by Google re:Work
“Extreme Ownership, how US Navy SEALs lead and win” by Jocko
Willink and Leif Babin
TEDx video on “Building a psychologically safe workplace” by Amy
Edmondson

20.
Questions?
pramesh.vaidya@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/prameshvaidya/
Pramesh Vaidya

21.
Thank You