Introduction
One of the key components of a successful Scrum Team is a psychological safety.
If creates trust, encourages innovation, improves team performance, and creates environment where team members feel safe to share ideas and feedback without fear of negative consequences.
This step-by-step blog will elaborate and guide you more on how to build psychological safety in your team.
Step 1: Establish Clear Norms and Expectations
In order to create foundation for psychological safety, start by setting clear norms and expectations for the Scrum Team. It transparently lays the groundwork for a trusting environment by providing a clear sturcture, accountabilities and behavioral guidelines that the Scrum Team members can rely on.
a) Define team principles and values
- Team agreement – As a team agree upon shared principles and values that will guide collaboration.
- Align with company culture – Define norms and ensure that they align with the broader company culture to maintain consisteny in expectations across the organization.
b) Clarify accountabilities
- Define accountabilities – Transparently define accountabilities such as Scrum Master (accountable for implementing Scrum framework), Product Owner (accountable for maximizing the value that comes as a result of a Scrum Team), Developers (accuntable for delivering Increments of value);
- Empowerment through transparency – When team members are clear about their own accountabilities, it helps them understand when ti step-in and when to step-back, creating a sense of ownership of their work.
c) Active participations
- Involve Scrum Team members in Scrum Events – In Sprint Planning, Daily Scrum, Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective everyone has the opportunity to speak. Actively engage quiter team members for their thoughts, feedback, ideas and give them space to contribute.
- No idea is a ‘bad’ idea – All ideas should be heard and considered regardless of their perceived viability. This will encourage participation from everyone, regardless of their level of experience or expertise.
Step 2: Model Vulnerability as a Leader
Psychological safety begins with a Scrum Master, Product Owner and Developers. Their behavior sets the tone for the team’s culture, making it crucial for leaders to model the vulnerability they wish to see within a team.
a) Show openness for mistakes
- Admit mistakes openly – Utilizing mistakes as learning opportunities in a team creates psychological safety.
- Normalize ‘failure’ – Mistakes are natural part of learning and improving, especially in an Agile environment where iterations (Sprints) and adaptations are part of the process.
b) Regular feedback loops
- Ask for feedback often – Actively ask for feedback about performance, facilitation style, decision-making processes, one-on-one meetings, Sprint Retrospectives or team inspection and adaptation processes.
- Act on feedback – It is not only enough to ask for feedback, you must act on it.
c) Show empathy
- Listen to understand not to reply – Many of us listen to reply not even focusing on what other person is saying instead of listening to understand perspective from someone else.
- Show gratitude – A simple ‘thank you’ for someone’s hard work or honest feedback can go a long way in building trust and appreciation.
Step 3: Openness and Courage
Openness and courage are two fundamental elements to build psychological safety, as it ensures that team members feel heard, valued and comfortable sharing ideas, concerns or feedback without fear of negative consequences.
a) Tools can help to create transparency
- Usage of communication tools effectively – Tools like Slack, Miro, Microsoft Teams or Trello can help maintain transparency and vizualize work and progress of the project, product, service or something more abstract.
b) Implement frequent inspect and adapt loops
- Implement regular inspection and adaptation – Scrum Events, such as Daily Scrum offer an opportunity for Developers of a Scrum Team to speak about their progress towards the Sprint Goal and plans for the day.
c) Ask Open-ended questions
- Encourage reflection – During Scrum Events such as Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective ask questions like, “What we did last Sprint well that we should keep doing?” or “What part of our process feels ‘broken’ that we can improve?”.
- Eliminate judgmental language – Phrasing questions in a non-confrontational way encourages team members to speak without feeling defensive or judged.
Step 4: Create a Safe Environment for Experimentation
Scrum’s iterative and incremental approach encourages Scrum Teams to experiment with new ideas, tools or processes. This creates a culture that enables experimentation without blame in order to create psychological safety.
a) Adopt a fail-forward mindset
- Encourage risk-taking – Make it transparent that risks are welcome, and even failures can yield valuable lessons. This can be reinforced during Sprint Retrospective Event, where failed experiments are inspected and adapted as learning experiences.
- Reward learning – Appreciate not just successes but also the learnings gained from failed experiments.
b) Celebrate small wins
- Acknowledge achievements – Recognizing team achievements frequently, whether it is a meeting a Sprint Goal, resolving a bug or finding a creative solution to a problem.
- Use positive reinforcement – Praises like ‘great job’, ‘well done’, ‘clever approach’ encourage team members to continue contributing their best effort.
c) Experiment during Sprints
- Allocate time for experimentation – Portion of each Sprint should be dedicated to experiment with new tools, techniques or processes. This should be flexible and fluid instead of set in stone.
- Provide a safety net – Make sure that experiments are not rushed or pressured, emphasizing that the goal is to learn rather than to deliver perfect results immediately.
Step 5: Develop Constructive Conflict-Resolution Skills
Conflicts in a Scrum Team and in life are inevitable, and managing them effectively is important for health and maintenance of psychological safety. Constructive conflict-resolution creates trust and encourages diverse perspectives.
a) Encourage respectful disagreement
- Create norms for debates – Creating guidelines for respectful disagreement ensures that all viewpoints are heard and considered without resorting to personal attacks.
- Use “I” statement – Team members should use “I” statement instead of “you” when expressing concerns, e.g. “I feel that…” instead of “You did…”.
b) Utilization of Sprint Retrospective Event
- Addressing issues openly – Sprint Retrospectives should be a safe place to discuss conflicts and challenges. Addressing conflicts as soon as they arise to prevent them from escalating.
- Balance participation – Everyone should have the opportunity to speak and provide input during Sprint Retrospective.
c) Focus on problem-solving, NOT blaming
- Solutions, solutions, solutions – When conflicts arise, facilitating the discussion towards finding solutions instead of assigning blame. This keeps the conversation productive and forward-focused.
- Be neutral as a facilitator – Scrum Masters should facilitate conflict resolution neutrally, making sure that everyone’s perspective is considered and validated.
Conclusion
Each of these tangible steps is important for building and sustaining psychological safety in a Scrum Team.
By implementing them consisntently, inspecting and adapting transparently processes and the ways of work, Scrum Team members will promote and build trust, innovation and improved performance.
