People who feel relatively high levels of psychological safety can participate fully in the entire PDSA cycle, whether it’s labeled as that, lean, kaizen, or A3 problem-solving.
In an environment of fear and punishment, employees understandably protect themselves by staying quiet about opportunities for improvement, which comes at a great cost to the organization. How do we address this? Don’t just tell employees they should feel safe or be brave in the face of fear. Eliminating fear is crucial, as W. Edwards Deming said decades ago. We need to replace fear with psychological safety.
Leaders can ask employees to speak up, but more importantly they must actively and continually reward employees for doing so. I don’t mean financial rewards. It often starts with simply saying thank you when others point out a mistake or an opportunity for improvement. Leaders must then ensure that scientific improvement cycles follow. Don’t replace fear with futilitySo please consider turning off your ad blocker for our site. A “vulnerable act” exposes a person to the risk of harm or loss. Basically, any interaction between two or more human beings can be vulnerable, some interactions more than others. A specific act might make a person vulnerable, to some degree, in a specific situation, such as disagreeing with a particular leader, admitting a mistake, or making a process improvement suggestion. I’d predict that if you hire an experienced Toyota team member into a factory without this culture, they might start off pointing out problems out of habit. But they might quickly learn not to speak up—either because they get punished for doing so, or they learn it’s a waste of time in that setting. Again, our feeling of psychological safety is both individual and situational. Stop blaming the employeesAt Toyota, what’s required for somebody to pull the Andon Cord—something that happens hundreds of times a day in each of their plants? A feeling of psychological safety means that team members expect they won’t be punished for pointing out problems and potentially stopping the line. Instead of investing more to train the frontline team members on problem-solving methods, spend more time educating and coaching leaders on the behaviors that are proven to build psychological safety. Starting at the top, leaders must model and reward vulnerable acts related to continuous improvement. Instead of blaming workers, change the management behaviors that change the culture. Participation and continuous improvement will be far more likely to materialize, and everybody wins. منبع: https://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/lean-column/stop-spending-money-problem-solving-training-091423.html I can’t count how many times during the past 20 years I’ve heard executives complain that their people aren’t enthusiastically participating in their lean program. Leaders lament that while the company has spent a small fortune to put everybody through continuous improvement training, hardly anybody submits ideas. The problem isn’t their employees; it’s a cultural problem and, therefore, a leadership problem.
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What is psychological safety?
If your organization struggles to engage everybody in continuous improvement, stop blaming the employees. Instead, take a look at your culture and leadership behaviors and the current state of psychological safety. Ironically, many employees might feel it’s unsafe to discuss how unsafe they feel. Using validated, anonymous surveys can gauge the level of psychological safety and the variation across teams, which establishes a starting point for measurable and meaningful improvement.
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Published: Tuesday, September 12, 2023 – 12:03