Ever worked with a team which just couldn’t get behind anything as a group? Competing interests, different backgrounds, strong personalities – it is what makes or breaks teams.
Relationships matter, full stop.
Often though relationships are like music, after a while you stop listening to new people or new information and rely upon the old favourites. It’s this creep, and when this sets in, an immobility, an erosion of curiosity, that drains the trust from team relationships.
If you can’t listen to someone discuss their interests outside of work you sure as hell aren’t going to listen to their perspective at work.
Want to change that? Ask the group in a relaxed setting when the ‘penny’ dropped for them about safety. I stumbled across this as a topic point for our leadership group one day as the opening ‘moment’ which is supposed to last 5 minutes; 45 minutes later the group had a new found purpose and trust within the group as people shared their hair-raising personal events which affected them or their family or friends. If individuals were lucky enough not to suffer one of these events or near misses it was their family that they wanted to go home to; particularly new dads who were extremely emotional about making sure they got to hold their kids in their arms and watch their ‘firsts’. We never did that session or question again with the group, we didn’t have to, we all were one – plus the construction manager liked his meetings to run on time :P.
Simon Sinek put out a great comment – Relationships are like seat belt’s, they only work when they click – same with Safety. If you can’t form a relationship you won’t overcome the bystander effect.
If you would like to read a great source on Safety and Relationships I would encourage you to read Rosa Antonia Carrillo‘s work here and on the Safety on Tap Podcast here.
Reframe my Safety Brain 