You’ve likely heard the term, “psychological safety,” as it’s bandied about in both the psychological and learning and development literature (if you haven’t, there is a definition below). Too often, people only focus on the “safe” part of psychological safety where people have a voice, feel valued, and feel safe to share ideas. That’s a critical aspect of psychological safety and will create a “nice/family” culture. But it’s not what really matters when building a high-performance culture that drives innovation and growth.
IT’S ABOUT COURAGE
Cultures that are high in psychological safety aren’t safe places. Psychological safety is really about courage because you can’t always be 100% safe. Giving somebody difficult feedback, making a decision some people won’t like, or giving a presentation to a senior team are situations that are never going to feel completely safe.
Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor, defines psychological safety as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking” and that members have “a sense of confidence the team will not embarrass, reject, or punish someone for speaking up.”
It’s that risk-taking piece that’s often overlooked. People need the courage to take risks in order for difficult conversations to happen, for ideas to be shared and challenged, and for tough decisions to be made. We call these Last 8% moments. They are the moments where courage is most needed.
WHAT IS A LAST 8% MOMENT?
After spending 25 years researching pressure and performance in the workplace, we discovered something important: People do well in the first 92% of what they say in difficult conversations, or in 92% of the decisions they face, but as things get progressively more difficult—as people approach the Last 8%— emotions start to take priority and drive behavior.
These emotions, such as fear and anxiety (which make us to feel unsafe) cause people to become avoidant and teams to start procrastinating, ducking critical conversations, and sidestepping important decisions. A high-avoidance team can never be a high-performing team.
In a Last 8% culture, individuals and teams have the courage to skillfully face these difficult situations. It’s the single biggest difference between what makes a team good and what makes a team great.
FINDING COURAGE IN THE LAST 8%
“Courage is not the absence of fear, it’s positive action in the face of fear.” —Anonymous
In our New York Times best-selling book, “Performing Under Pressure,” we share the following pressure strategies to overcome fear and anxiety—i.e., not feeling safe—to approach Last 8% moments:
1. Identify crisis vs. challenge/opportunity. People tend to view any high pressure, Last 8% situation as a crisis. Our physiological response to a perceived crisis is one where our body is flooded with chemicals that restrict oxygen to the brain and muscles, making it harder to focus, negatively impacting our performance. By shifting our mindset, we can alter our physiology. Ask yourself: “How can I view this situation as a challenge or opportunity?” You’ll get more oxygen to your brain and muscles, improving your performance.
2. Regulate your breathing. Anxiety speeds up your breathing, forcing you to breathe high up in your chest. Slowing down your breathing and making sure you breathe from your diaphragm will calm your autonomic nervous system. Just breathe!
3. Visualize yourself at your best. Most people use a “default visualization”—we think of whatever comes to mind, often negatively focused on the things that can go wrong)—which predisposes us to be less effective. Instead, remember times you did your best and focus on those successes. It changes your brain.
4. Realize you don’t need to be perfect. Unrealistically, people think they need to be perfect, overperform, or have super-human abilities to succeed under pressure. They don’t. Instead, concentrate on doing your best. I give this coaching to my 16-year-old daughter when she is stressed about tests and exams (a Last 8% moment for any teenager!).
5. Focus on what you can control. When you focus on the uncontrollable, you intensify the pressure; it boosts your anxiety to the point of disturbing your physiology, creating distracting thoughts that undermine your confidence. If you want to be at your best when it matters most, focus on the things you can control—your attitude and being your best in a Last 8% moment.
6. Be open and expansive. This technique sounds so simple, but it’s tremendously effective and is based on brain science. Stand tall, open your arms, take a breath, and your body will release a performance-enhancing chemical cocktail that will help you rise to the challenge.
TRY ONE STRATEGY FIRST
I’ve had the pleasure of working with athletes, surgeons, and U.S. Marines and shared these strategies with them. The key is not to try applying four or five of them at once. Under pressure, we lose cognitive thinking capacity, so it’s nearly impossible to think of more than one new strategy at a time. Start by trying one of the strategies next time you are facing a high-pressure Last 8% moment. Then practice that in two to three more challenging situations. As that becomes a habit, you can add another one in.
There are no quick fixes. The process of developing courage and skill in Last 8% moments should take weeks and months. In an ideal world, you’d attend training and get coaching, but this will give you a start.
WHERE INNOVATION HAPPENS
As noted above, cultures that are high in psychological safety aren’t safe places. They are environments where people have the tools and skills to overcome fear and anxiety to step into their difficult situations. That is what drives a high-performance Last 8% culture where innovation happens and people are able to be at their best.