At PeopleNotTech we make software that measures and improves Psychological Safety in teams. If you care about it- talk to us about a demo at contact@peoplenottech.com
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We’ve long accepted at PeopleNotTech that we are still rather far from where work will be about happy, healthy and engaged employees working flexibly with agility and being engaged with the work and each other because they constantly keep improving their teams’ dynamic with “people work”. Only then will companies be working at full potential and only then, will they be sustainable in a world of fast demands and high performance.
In the meantime, all of us that know this to be true, have to put in superhuman amounts of effort to make this vision a reality for everyone. In all the organisations we work with, our advocates, the people willing to fight for this better work-life future are incredibly precious and immensely overworked but constantly surprise us with their heart and their resilience. Are they ok though?
While there is a lot to be said about mental health at work, how it needs to be accepted as part of life, how there’s a worthy discussion to be had between what is preexistent and what is work-induced in places with hefty HumanDebt, its connection to happy and healthy teams and the many ways in which we all need to take stock and normalise the admission of how it is ok not to be ok, most of these have been talked about these days around the World Mental Health Day last week but what we wanted to underline was that in some places, the very best people are not ok and that’s as a direct result of how hard they fight to better their organisation.
One of the most frustrating things for these superheroes we work with is dealing with internal “lip service” regarding clarity around the existence of the HumanDebt™ and the urgent need to do the human work. Organisations that seem to say all the right things but mean none of them. It’s immensely common and very damaging to true change-makers.
In a sense, it’s almost less painful to work in an enterprise where there is no acknowledgement and awareness about these topics, as at least there is a sense of hope for real and massive change is implicit – they do wake up they may do right by their employees. By contrast, being in a place that doesn’t need the conversation on “why” it matters as it keeps talking about it, but still translates none of the rhetorics into actions, is soul-sapping.
The places where humanity is heralded and where company posts on LinkedIn are all about the people but where, on the inside, nothing at all shows that to be the case. Places where everyone may well have had good intentions but they haven’t translated in practice. Or even, let’s face it, places where some leaders may be callous enough to think the lip service is necessary to appease the sheep but they think this entire topic around humans is a sign of our woke, pansy times.
We meet tens of these superheroes every week. Many from the DevOps and Agile world and a handful of leaders and HR professionals too but all sharing the same cape – a burning passion for their teams and their company’s ability to win if only it put its people at the heart of everything. Many times, they are stupendously purpose and impact-driven but truly burned out and very shaken by what they face every day. At times, they are even on the brink of depression but still trying and their hearts are still into the fight.
If we should accept that the definition of engagement ought to be “extreme sense of loyalty to the enterprise born from a sense of belonging and attachment to the establishment” then they are implicitly beacons or they wouldn’t be waking up every day to put on their Don Quixote suit so it’s little wonder they experience everything from mild annoyance to cape fatigue and at times, deep desperation when their resilience is challenged and their superhuman efforts seem to be in vain.
I put it to us that we ought to be a lot more concerned with the mental health of these change-makers.
That said, as you have read from us before, we don’t think “engagement” should abide by the definition above in the least, it ought to refer to the level of emotional connection between people not between people and the intangible notion of the organisation.
In fact, it’s highly likely that these superheroes are powered by just that – the extreme levels of true engagement – care, empathy, real emotional connection- that they have with their team members and the people they have connected with within the enterprise to keep them going. Those connections are the true fuel for their fight.
Once we start seeing the flabbergastingly monstrous difference between what passes for engagement and what engagement really is, or should be, it stands to reason that no experience or engagement specialist should invest one more thought or one more dollar in ping pong tables or branding the intranet in lieu of figuring out how to ditch their existent definition of engagement, throw away their NPS and its measurement and figure out how to instead create an environment where genuine human connections would thrive.
With hundreds of studies underlining the billions lost when employees aren’t invested in the company, you’d think we would have collectively worked out that anything other than spending time understanding the dynamic between our employees and supporting them in creating close-knit bonds and empathetic connections, is a complete waste of time.
A few have indeed. Look at the Silicon Valley winners and show me the NPSers, look at start-ups and scaleups and show me those that ignore the emotional connection. The ones that never heard of Lencioni. The ones that confuse Psychological Safety for mental health or job security. The ones that don’t spend time obsessing with their teams.
Of the laggards, some are starting to understand why the examples above do what they do. Not because they are nice or it’s the moral thing to do. But because you can not compete if not.
Those that have worked it out and have started to say the right things do absolutely have to mean it too though and empty rhetorics are not a solution. But, as we tell our Superheroes, there’s a good reason not to despair even if they see the organisation say all the right things in public and do none of the right things internally and behind closed doors. That’s because while yes, conferences and inspirational talks with no changes in processes and tools is lip service, and while yes, not being asked how they feel while claiming it’s important is lip service, and yes, the empty talk is sometimes painfully evident, we still believe it is better than nothing.
How so?
Well, lip service is half a “permission slip” really. It’s a door that may not be wide open but is ajar. Once they said the right things, much as they may not mean it, if you pick up a ticket and run with it, it will be hard to explain they never meant it and “unmake” good things.
So look at the half-full side of the glass- if the organisation ever -even in passing-, made the right noises about how important their people are, how clear it is that the work on changing mindsets and allowing people to have, to express and to better their emotions is important, and how willing they are to support the human work, then you need to find innovative ways to put some of it in practice.
To pretend you’re unaware there’s any lip service at play and to make-believe you bought what you may think is an act. Then run with it “in good faith”. Protect the time for human work. Run that trial, organise that POC. Ask for the resources for the tools or the coaching you need. Don’t ask for any more approvals- after all, surely they meant all that was published in the nice article or the lovely keynote, right?
And if you’re the mythical “organisation” reading this please:
- Try and reduce the lip service, it’s insulting, don’t even talk about the importance of people or claim the human work matters unless you’re doing something concrete about it;
- Start understanding what true permission slips would mean – the servant leadership and autonomy mindset your people deserve and your enterprise needs;
- Audit your HumanDebt™ – truly take a step back and understand how much of it you’ve created -take stock and understand what has been left unsolved then get to work to split it into manageable chunks and pay it back starting with empowering teams to better their own dynamic;
- As ever – put Psychological Safety at the heart of it all – that your Superheroes have enough of it to even verbalise their frustrations in their quest for change is nothing short of a privilege and a miracle if you’ve previously broken everyone’s trust with empty rhetorics so don’t squander it;
- Look out for the mental health of your Superheroes – your best, most courageous, most -truly- engaged of employees that care enough to fight you to get to where you should have wanted to lead them.
To the superheroes – hang in there. We all need you. Just remember that the most empty of rhetorics can provide the soundtrack to powerful change epics.
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The 3 “commandments of Psychological Safety” to build high performing teams are: Understand, Measure and Improve
Read more about our Team Dashboard that measures and improves Psychological Safety at www.peoplenottech.com or reach out at contact@peoplenottech.com and let’s help your teams become Psychologically Safe, healthy, happy and highly performant.
To order the “People Before Tech: The Importance of Psychological Safety and Teamwork in the Digital Age” book go to this Amazon link