Webinar Week 3: 2024 UN System Innovation Springboard Programme

2024 UN System Innovation Springboard Programme

Creating an enabling environment Community Conversations

Breakout Room Activity 10-15minutes - 3-4 participants

00

Potential start points

Facilitator: Person whose first name is closest to Z;

• What's the best mistake you've ever made? What's your favorite failure?
• What's the best advice you've given — or received — about failing?

Reporter: Person whose first name is closest to A.

2024 UN System Innovation Springboard Programme

Creating an enabling Environment

Zoom Poll

Which piece of art resonates with your current state of mind?

The Scream

The Promenade

The Thinker

Noon-Rest from Work

... joined the Innovation and the UN Innovation Toolkit Webinar

• Types of Innovation
• Innovation Processes

Your learning journey

... submitted your Individual Assignment due by Sunday October 20

Last week, you ...

... connected with Your Peers on the Post-Webinar Forum Discussion

... shared your Feedback on Week Two

Learning Objectives

By the end of this Week, you should be able to:

Outline how failures can be openly discussed and used to drive learning that accelerates innovation efforts

Identify key skills critical to foster an innovation culture within your own sphere of influence;

Discuss the importance of Psychological Safety to drive innovation, idea sourcing, and high performing teams

Define the best ways to encourage creativity.

Individual Activity 4 minutes

Reflection One: Two Minutes

Reflection Two: Two Minutes

Reflect on a time you did not feel supported in a team. ​

• What specific actions contributed to this?​

Reflect on a time you felt supported in a team. ​

• What specific actions contributed to this?​

Breakout Room Activity 8 minutes - 3-4 participants

As much as you feel comfortable, please discuss and share in the Padlet

Facilitator: Person who ensures each person gets a chance to share.

A time you felt supported in a team. ​

• What specific actions contributed to this?​

A time you did not feel supported in a team. ​

• What specific actions contributed to this?​

Reporter: Person who compiles notes from the discussion and includes it in the padlet

Breakout Room Activity 18 minutes - 3-4 participants

Discussion Topic:

As much as you are comfortable, please share:

• Atime you felt supported in a team. ​
• What specific actions contributed to this?​

• A time you did not feel supported in a team. ​
• What specific actions contributed to this?​

Let's share!

Debrief

Two-fold Objectives

Guiding Principles, by you

define the specific actions that contribute to or detract from Your sense of safety

ANTÓNIO GUTERRES, UN SECRETARY-GENERAL

Definition

What Psychological Safety Is:​

1. A shared belief

2. the team is safe​

3. interpersonal risk taking

• Edmondson and Lei (2014). "Psychological Safety: The History, Renaissance, and Future of an Interpersonal Construct," Annual Review Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. ​
• Edmondson (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly June 1999. ​
• Edmondson, A. C. (2021, June 22). 4 steps to boost psychological safety at your workplace. Harvard Business​
• TEDx Talks. (2014, May 5). Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8​

Definition

What Psychological Safety Is Not​:

1. Indulging team members​​

2. Not holding others accountable​

3. Being disrespectful in the name of honesty​

• Timothy R. Clark: What Psychological Safety Is Not​

Breakout Room Activity 8 minutes - 3-4 participants

Please discuss:

Facilitator: Person who ensures each person gets a chance to share.

Explain the concept of Psychological Safety to a nine-year old.​

Reporter: Person who compiles notes from the discussion and shares it in the chat

Research Reference:

Why does this matter?​

Everytime we withold, we rob ourselves and our colleagues, small moments of learning, and we don’t innovate

DR. AMY EDMONSON, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL​​

• Edmondson and Lei (2014). "Psychological Safety: The History, Renaissance, and Future of an Interpersonal Construct," Annual Review Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior. ​
• Edmondson (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly June 1999. ​
• Edmondson, A. C. (2021, June 22). 4 steps to boost psychological safety at your workplace. Harvard Business​
• TEDx Talks. (2014, May 5). Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhoLuui9gX8​

Research Reference:

Project Aristotle​

• Goal: “What makes a team effective at Google?”​

• Number of Teams: 180
• Statistical Models: Over 35​

• Result: Psychological Safety as the number one criteria

Related insights from the LNA

• re:Work. (n.d.). https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/​

5-Minutes Break

4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Timothy Clarke

Inclusion Safety: I belong

• Scope: Feeling accepted and a sense of belonging to the team.
• Action: Active Listening during meetings

Respect

Note: The progression isn’t strictly linear, and teams may navigate through these stages in various orders or times, but a significant discrepancy in the stages of individual team members can create discord.

Permission

• R Clark, T. (2020). The 4 stages of Psychological safety. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Timothy Clarke

Inclusion Safety

Learner Safety: I can grow

• Scope: Feeling safe to learn through asking questions, experimenting, making (and admitting) small mistakes, and asking for help
• Action: Implement regular debrief sessions after projects to discuss successes and failures. ​

Respect

Permission

Click on the arrow to see past discussions

• R Clark, T. (2020). The 4 stages of Psychological safety. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Timothy Clarke

Inclusion Safety

Learner Safety

Contributor Safety: I can share ideas

• Scope: : Feeling safe to contribute ideas, without fear of embarrassment or ridicule
• Action: Establish clear channels for idea submission and review, with a commitment to fair evaluation.

Respect

Permission

Click on the arrow to see past discussions

• R Clark, T. (2020). The 4 stages of Psychological safety. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Timothy Clarke

Inclusion Safety

Learner Safety

Contributor Safety

Respect

Challenger Safety: I can innovate

• Scope: : Feeling safe to question assumptions
• Action: Create platforms for open dialogue between leadership and staff to address challenges and solicit input.

Permission

• R Clark, T. (2020). The 4 stages of Psychological safety. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Lightning Poll

At which stage do you feel you are at in terms of the psychological safety?

Inclusion Safety

Contributor Safety

None

Learner Safety

Challenger Safety

Breakout Room Activity 38 minutes - 3-4 participants

As much as you feel comfortable, please discuss and share in the Padlet

Facilitator: Person who ensures each person gets a chance to share.

Reflecting on the Four Stages of Psychological Safety​ (Inclusion, Learner, Contributor, Challenger Safety):​

• Share one action that could be implemented in your daily work to get to the next level?​

Reporter: Person who compiles notes from the discussion and includes it in the padlet

Breakout Room Activity 38 minutes - 3-4 participants

Task:

As much as you feel comfortable, please discuss and share in the Padlet:

• Reflecting on the Four Stages of Psychological Safety​ (Inclusion, Learner, Contributor, Challenger Safety):

• Share one action that could be implemented in your daily work to get to the next level?​

Let's share!

How to get started

Three Keys to Promoting Psychological Safety​

1. Framing

2. Engagement

3. Respond

Case Study

Open Discussion | Padlet

Uli is a long-time staff that was recently promoted to Team Leader at UNOV. For the past two years he’s worked on a large development project. ​​ ​​ He upholds very high standards, but in the past few months Uli has become increasingly intolerant of mistakes and ideas that challenge his way of thinking.​​ ​​ Recently, Uli publicly rejected an idea offered by an experienced team member. Everyone else thought the idea was strong, well-researched, and worth exploring. No one spoke up. Since then, new ideas have since dried up.​​ ​​ Uli’s submitted a few ideas of his own to management, but they was ultimately rejected because they lacked creativity and innovation.​​ ​ You are a respected expert that only joined the project a few months ago. The team wants you to approach Uli and rebuild trust. They ask you because as you are new and do not have any work history with him. What are 1-2 concrete suggestion that you could make to Uli?​

• re:Work. (n.d.). https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/​

Any questions?

1. Attend your first mandatory Peer Coaching Session

2. Connect with Your Peers on the Post-Webinar Forum Discussion

Your next steps

3. Share your Feedback on Week Three

Let's Innovate!

www.unssc.org

Interpersonal risk taking

It's the acknowledgement that every action we take, every conversation we have and every suggestion we make comes with a certain amount of risk to our own social and professional standing within a team or an organization.

Frame the work as learning AND delivery

Share as much as you are comfortable:

• Acknowledge your own fallibility: Share your own struggles, mistakes, and learning experiences.
• Learn from failure: Treat mistakes as opportunities for learning.​​
• Reflect: Invite team to reflect on team process. (e.g., What’s working and not working?)​

Being disrespectful in the name of honesty

Psychological safety does not endorse rudeness or thoughtless honesty. It encourages empathy and consideration, not cruelty.

Ask Open Ended Questions​

Based on your bandwidth, ask:

• What do others think?​​
• What are we missing?​​
• If we wanted to fail, how would we proceed?​​
• What leads you to think so?​​
• What’s the concern that you have about that?​
• How would you explain this further? ​
• What do you think might happen if we did X?​​

Respond Productively​

Based on your bandwidth

• Express Appreciation: Listen, acknowledge, and thank.​
• Offer Support: Ask your colleague how they would like to be supported​
• Check-in: Schedule a reminder to call or write in.​

What do we mean by shared belief?

We mean that everyone in the team believes that they will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.

A Shield From Accountability

It's important to feel safe to analyze mistakes, learn and grow from them as well

Safe to do what?

Safe to ask questions, admit to mistakes, learn from them, experiment.

Coddling

Indulging colleagues with excessive care and attention versus respect and autonomy

What makes it most difficult to embark on a new idea or project for me is...

Teams can be enabled to do innovative work by...

• Being available for open discussions 64%

• Uncertainty, and possible consequences of error 27%

• Possibility of failure and guilt culture 32%

• Encouraging constant reflection 64%

• Lack of resources, or guidelines to make informed decision 64%

• Empowering with autonomy 73%

• Negative impacts on the lives of affected individuals 23%

• Guiding with examples 59%

• Lengthy process to implement decision is discouraging 45%

• Challenging team members 55%

• All sorts of risks to be considered 9%

• Communicating my idea or project to relevant stakeholders 9%

• Being clear on my team's vision and goals 50%

• Rigid organizational rules and regulations 77%

• Other 9%

• Other 9%