The Safety Conscious Team Builder (Part 2)

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I posed the question in Part 1 of The Safety Conscious Team Builder, 
What are the safety conscious behaviors of an intentional teambuilding educator?

And the invitation,
Let’s build a conversation together, through a series of posts and comments, about the ways we consciously plan for and manage both the physical and psychological safety of our groups.

As our conversation grows, we’ll add in additional behaviors we practice that influence group safety. To start us out, standing on the shoulders of those before us, I was inspired to share Dale Le Fevre’s concept of the “safety conscious” play leader (found in, Best New Games, Updated Edition, 2012). In Part 1 I shared Dale’s thoughts on physical safety. Here in Part 2, we’ll hear his ideas, and some of my thoughts about them, on promoting psychological safety.

Before some specifics, I want to reiterate a point made in Part 1: 
We cannot promise our participants that they will be safe. But we can be safety conscious.

And we can ask them to be safety conscious as well. We create norms with our groups related to safety and we do our best to support and follow them. And sometimes we’re not successful. But we ‘play’ anyway, despite the risks because it’s a fun way to learn and grow.
 
Psychological Safety Conscious Behaviors

Here's the initial line of the psychological safety section in Dale’s book:
As a game leader, you have the responsibility to create an atmosphere where everyone feels safe (my emphasis).

I like how this is worded. It's something a 'play leader' can agree to and take the responsibility for, as noted, along with the group. When norms are created, in collaboration with the group, with safety consciousness in mind, the group can understand the spirit of the experience. I share with my groups: “We have some agreements in place to be mindful of our actions and to take care of ourselves and others. I’m willing to share this experience with this group and support our agreements.” There is a feeling of safety.

As an educator, it is also my responsibility to support and follow through with the group’s agreements and hold them accountable. If I let agreements slide, let people get away with breaking agreements, participants will notice. Psychological safety will be influenced. Feeling safe will be influenced. I need to step in when agreements aren't followed and work together with the group to fix what was broken and recommit to the agreements so we can move forward. I purposefully continue to check-in with my groups about our agreements, at times during, and most often after, activities so we can adjust, add or subtract to how we want to be together. When the group knows we’ll be checking in, they know they will have the opportunity to share their observations and change something if needed. They are part of the process.
 
One way to influence psychological safety is for the leader to participate in the game. 

Dale goes on to say, “It shows that you are not trying to get them to do something that you would not do…you do not have to play every minute…but be willing to at least demonstrate a game…[especially] a game that people might think is a bit foolish or risky.”

I had not considered that participating with my group could promote some psychological safety, but I understand the correlation. My purpose for participating with my groups has been to build rapport and connection. Now I can believe it is more than that. I’m now considering how I might participate even more without influencing the group’s dynamic too much.

Historically, I like to participate with my group’s as much as I can in the beginning of a program. The connection activities I do are conducive to playing without sacrificing a lot of observation time. The other factor relates back to physical safety. If there is a possibility of increased locomotor speed, I want to be observing behaviors so I can adjust them if needed – I am the ‘safety conscious monitor.’ These initial interactions with groups allow me to address agreements when needed. I want to show my participants I will be watching and helping them keep their agreements. Depending on the group, there can be a lot of stopping and starting, interrupting the ‘fun’. I believe it’s important, as shared above, to show my groups I’ll be keeping them accountable.

When it comes to the more complex tasks later in a program, I tend to take an observation role so I can observe and harvest reflection questions to sync with program outcomes. However, thinking here, I might still be able to participate and observe at the same time, not solving problems but still being a resource. For example, being that person to even out the numbers in the group when needed. Besides, my participants really like telling me what to do.

I also think there might be an advantage to being a part of the group and not standing (looming) around the outside. I remember reading John Dewey tell me that the teacher is part of the class. He said something like, why deny the group the teachers hard won experience. Of course, we don’t want to over influence, we want our groups to own their learning. It’s about the subtle ‘art’ of interjecting at appropriate times.

Having a choice is important. This is Dale's final point related to psychological safety and something many of us already adhere to.

“It’s okay for a few players to decide to sit a game out or ‘pass.’ If a person is genuinely frightened, [they] need to be able to choose not to play.” Among other names we view this as challenge with choice. I’ve had a lot of conversations about this concept over the years. One was with Karl Rohnke, the person many credit for introducing the philosophy (of sorts). I distinctly remember him sharing, “funny thing is” (he was amazed at how important Challenge by Choice had become), the idea came to him when he was playing around with acronyms – he had a fondness for them years ago. CBC was in his collection, meaning complete blood count. One day, challenge by choice “popped” into his head. So, he ran with it.

When I present this concept to my groups, I frame it something like this: “Challenge with choice is about choosing something to do in relation to the task. We are in this experience together. I will help with options if they are not clear. And you can add choices we all agree with. If you choose to stand or sit off to the side, that’s okay too. But I’ll ask you to stay with the group through observation. Watch what’s happening. Listen to what people are saying. Be curious. Recognize the thoughts you’re having with your observations. I’ll be asking you about them when we process the activity at the end.”

In my experience, this frame has kept my groups physically together and cognitively connected. I’ve noticed that most of the participants who choose to step off to the side have the quiet (shy) personalities. They have yet to find their place, and voice, in the group. When I ask them about their observations, they get to share their voice and ideas. The group sees their insight and regard it as a skill they can use in the future. Now, some people disagree with my approach to challenge with choice, but I am seeing benefits.

Dale makes a final recommendation related to choice: “If someone is just trying to be cool (as might be the case with adolescents), I suggest coaxing [them] to join with ‘Come on just try this!” You have to make a judgment call about what a person is doing.”

In the spirit of coaxing, when I tell participants that I will be ‘calling on them’ to share their observations after an activity, some change their mind about stepping out and join the task. At first I didn’t consider the reverse psychology approach, but I rolled with it non-the-less.

When we can be safety conscious, and help our groups do the same, we invite them to go along on the adventure, have fun and take some calculated risks. When most of the group feels safe enough to play, Dale says, “it becomes easier and safer for an individual to take the risk too.”
 
Our conversation is open. What else can we do with a safety conscious mindset? Leave us a Comment below. 

All the best, 

Chris Cavert, Ed.D. 

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