Scrum values can help your team become psychologically safe

 

While teaching a class earlier this week, a learner asked how will team members start to feel psychologically safe, especially if they are working in a company whose culture isn't fully supportive of this critical ingredient to a high performing team.

Updating existing corporate values, and senior and middle management leaders holding themselves and each other accountable to modeling behaviors consistent with these refreshed values helps as does coaching at all levels of the organization. For individual team members, the Scrum values can provide good reminders of our own responsibilities for creating a psychologically safe working environment regardless of which delivery framework or method we are using.

Commitment: While we normally think of this value in terms of committing to achieving team goals, this value can also be considered as a shared commitment to creating a safe environment.

Courage: The Scrum Guide encourages team members to show the courage to do the right thing and work on tough problems. This is equally applicable to interpersonal relations. It takes significant courage to speak up when you witness behavior which is corrosive to psychological safety especially when the person misbehaving is more senior than you are.

Focus: While team members should be focused on completing work, living this value also means that we are focused and actively listening when we are part of a discussion or ceremony. By doing that, we are better able to pick up on the tone and body language of others to understand if they are feeling uncomfortable about what has just been said or look like they want to say something but just need that little bit of encouragement to speak up.

Openness: Just as we expect our teams to be transparent about the blockers they are facing, the same level of openness should be exhibited during retrospectives or other opportunities for inspection and adaptation with regards to how we interacted with one another.

Respect: Demonstrating this value towards our team members means not only treating them with respect but challenging others who would show them disrespect.

Edmund Burke - "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”