Crossrail – or the Elizabeth Line as it’s now known – opened its platforms to the public in 2022. Linking forty stations (ten of them new) between Berkshire, south London and Essex it was heralded as a huge engineering success with 200 million passenger journeys expected every year. But behind the scenes it didn’t always run smoothly, leading to it opening three and a half years late and four billion pounds over budget. (1)
In 2024 Matthew Symes was appointed to lead an independent review which shared the lessons learned about Crossrail’s sponsorship and governance arrangements. Of the nine key learnings he identified, one major challenge was to ‘evolve the methods of project assurance to cut through groupthink’.
Groupthink can lead to bad decisions, not addressing risks, failed programmes, spiralling costs and disenchanted employees and stakeholders. But what can cause groupthink? One major contributor is working in an environment which isn’t psychologically safe.
Being psychologically safe means people can express their ideas, disagree constructively and admit mistakes without fear of retribution.
The success of any change is not purely based on executing a plan. As we all know, and as I have seen with the multiple transformation programmes I have helped to deliver, change initiatives come with uncertainty, resistance and unforeseen obstacles. And when this happens a leader needs their experienced team around them to help address these challenges and help ensure change is successful.
But, if team members don’t feel comfortable speaking up there’s a high chance that challenges won’t be highlighted and therefore there will be no opportunity to resolve them. Additionally it may also mean that some other critical risks aren’t raised, and that great ideas to enhance an employee or customer experience can go unheard.
We know that change leaders have a multitude of roles and responsibilities as they set their business transformation up for success. From strategic planning and stakeholder engagement to impact assessment, communications and measurement there are a lot of elements to get right. But, in my experience there are numerous activities and skills that leaders can sometimes overlook which can have an impact on how psychologically safe an environment is. These are:
- Actively listening
- Admitting mistakes
- Encouraging learning from every situation, whether it’s a positive one or not
- Positively reinforcing and praising those who do challenge.
While this may sound straightforward it isn’t always easy – psychologically safe teams don’t happen by chance. At the outset leaders need to pull their teams together to agree what ‘good’ psychological safety is and define the behavioural practices that encourage their team to speak up when they may have a concern and reward them when they make their valuable contributions.
How can change leaders embrace psychological safety?
When team members feel comfortable questioning decisions and proposing alternative solutions, they are more likely to develop creative and adaptable change strategies, mitigate disruption and build resilience – a crucially important role when the inevitable road blocks or changes to the plan happen. If people feel they’ll be judged or can’t speak up then teams could fall into groupthink where ineffective plans go unchallenged, and trust is diminished.
It’s likely that your company is made up of diverse people so it follows that encouraging diverse perspectives from your change team and stakeholders should be encouraged as it’s likely it will only have a positive impact on the programme itself. Therefore, it’s important that change leaders should cultivate trust by actively listening and acting on suggestions and concerns.
To build psychological safety, leaders should create structured opportunities for reflection, encourage constructive debate, and acknowledge that mistakes can happen – it’s how you learn from them that is important. Simple actions—such as acknowledging uncertainties, seeking input from all members, and reinforcing the value of trying different approaches—can help foster a culture where team members feel empowered to take ownership of change.
Finally, self-awareness as a leader is essential. In times of stress (which is inevitable on a change programme) we can default to poor behavioural patterns – such as micro-management, closing down discussion, failing to listen. Knowing your own stress responses and having techniques to manage yourself and your own resilience are essential if you are to maintain psychological safety across your team.
By developing a supportive team culture change leaders will allow their teams to express concerns, refine approaches and learn from any mistakes or setbacks without blame. I believe that having this mindset not only will strengthen the team but will also improve the effectiveness of the change.
(1) https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/londons-24-billion-crossrail-finally-opens-2022-05-23/
About Marlowe
At Marlowe we partner with organisations to deliver large scale, complex transformation and change. We deliver business change solutions, change capability, assurance, training, leadership effectiveness, communications and cultural change.
Our focus is on your people to ensure your change is delivered practically, successfully and sustainably. Please contact us if you would like to know more about delivering exceptional business change.
