Week 7 - Importance of an Enabling Environment for Innovation

Strengthening Skills under UN 2.0 with a Focus on Results Based Management and Innovation

Importance of an Enabling Environment for Innovation

Zoom Poll

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

The Scream

The Promenade

The Thinker

Noon-Rest from Work

Learning Objectives

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

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

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

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​​

Related insights from the LNA

• 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: Join UNIN to be a part of an Innovation community

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: Use the Embrace Failures Tool to personally reflect on your own successes and areas of improment ​

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: Publicly acknowledge the input of peers during discussions or via emails. Thanks to [Name] for that insightful point,” can reinforce a culture of value and recognition.

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: Use “What If” Statements: Frame challenges to existing practices or ideas as a question. For example, “What if we considered another approach to logistics for efficiency?”

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 OCHA. For the past two years he’s worked on a large humanitarian 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. Complete every component within the Checklist

2. Then, Complete your Overall Programmatic Evaluation

Your next steps

3. Receive your certificate!

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?​​

What are the most important skills/abilities that you value most in doing your work?

How do you support and enable your team and peers to do innovative work?

• Uncertainty, and possible consequences of error 71%

• Being available for open discussions 96%

• Relationship management 83%

• Encouraging constant reflection 71%

• Motivating your team 58%

• Setting clear goals and priorities 79%

• Empowering with autonomy 54%

• Allowing autonomy 54%

• Providing adequate resources 50%

• Guiding with examples 87%

• Providing adequate time 67%

• Challenging team members 42%

• Learning from problems and success 87%

• Helping ideas flow freely 71%

• Being clear on my team's vision and goals 75%

• Empathy 79%

• Understanding yourself 58%

• Other 0%

• Respect for diversity 92%

• Other 4%

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 are the most important skills/abilities that you value most in doing your work?

How do you support and enable your team and peers to do innovative work?

• Uncertainty, and possible consequences of error 71%

• Being available for open discussions 96%

• Relationship management 83%

• Encouraging constant reflection 71%

• Motivating your team 58%

• Setting clear goals and priorities 79%

• Empowering with autonomy 54%

• Allowing autonomy 54%

• Providing adequate resources 50%

• Guiding with examples 87%

• Providing adequate time 67%

• Challenging team members 42%

• Learning from problems and success 87%

• Helping ideas flow freely 71%

• Being clear on my team's vision and goals 75%

• Empathy 79%

• Understanding yourself 58%

• Other 0%

• Respect for diversity 92%

• Other 4%