Martijn’s tips on: online Psychological Safety

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to you when I say that we too at Scrum Academy have been working mostly from behind the screen for the past year. We spend most of our time working together as a team online rather than physically. In a previous article, I gave tips on how to improve psychological safety. But how do you do that in an online environment? In this article, we take a closer look at online psychological safety in teams. I’ll give you 3 tips for better facilitation, better listening and better focus.

1. Better and more transparent facilitation

By better facilitating online sessions, you can address uncertainty, unfamiliarity and less transparency. As a facilitator, start by putting your own uncertainty on the table. Share your concerns with your team members and allow yourself to be vulnerable. No one has the answer in this day and age. So in your online sessions, make time and space for sharing concerns and uncertainty. And when you hear your team members’ concerns, think, “How can I respond more empathetically and thoughtfully?”

2. Listen better and more consciously

Listening better and more consciously also helps. You then pick up on uncertainty earlier and are sharper and more engaged. Good listening can be practiced. Focused listening is very consciously detecting when you are occupied with your own thoughts while listening. Often people are listening with the intention of responding. Or you may be distracted by an incoming email or chat. Try to notice this straying and return your full attention back to the conversation.

3. Better and sharper focus

One of the challenges I personally experience regularly is the lack of a clear focus. Of course, as a Scrum Academy team, we hold our Daily Scrum daily. Often very operational things come out of that: making calls, planning training sessions, writing newsletters. Sometimes I can’t see the wood for the trees and then I find it difficult to pull a colleague’s coat to think along with me. What helps here: a very clear purpose. Knowing what your (team) goal is and your unique role and contribution to achieving it. By having this razor sharp you work on your perception of psychological safety. When you know that your opinion counts, you dare to speak out more quickly.

Get to work!

Online work on psychological safety is done through better facilitation, listening and focus. This is how you tackle uncertainty, unfamiliarity and less transparency. Want to know the state of psychological safety in your team? Use our tool and find out in no time.

Latest trainings

Do you grant yourself a boost in the field of psychological safety? Need more tools, knowledge and experience? Then sign up for our latest Masterclass in Psychological Safety that I provide together with trainer & coach Adrie Dolman. Or check out the customized in-company program Agile Team Development. Ideal for executives, managers and leaders of ambitious teams and organizations.