Last week I presented the last in a series of webinars to a senior leadership team about cultivating psychological safety. One of the research insights I shared came from Superfriend‘s August 2023 study of Australian workplaces about the five most important domains for wellbeing at work. These domains are:

  • Work design
  • Capability
  • Safety
  • Connectedness
  • Leadership

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“Connectedness” is a Protective Factor

Superfriend found that the most important of these domains, to keep the workplace mentally healthy, to combat burnout and to improve retention, was Connectedness – the quality of interpersonal relationships.

Connectedness is the most important Domain for keeping a workplace mentally healthy. Feeling connected is a strong protective factor for psychological distress, overall mental health, and general wellbeing. Source
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This finding backs up research from Google’s Project Aristotle into what makes highly effective teams. By interviewing 200 teams across all areas of the business, researchers found that:

Who is on a team matters much less than how team members interact, structure their work, and view their contributions. Source​

 

The connective tissue of how we show up together, matters exponentially more than who shows up together. Consciously tending to practices of ‘togetherness’ matter.

Tending to Connective Tissue

In our bodies, connective tissue provides cohesion and support for all tissues in the body. Psychological safety is the cultural equivalent in our workplaces, and can be found in the ways we tend to these human needs:

  • To be included, accepted, and to belong
  • To learn and grow
  • To make a difference
  • To make things better​

The best teams create a secure base where people feel an authentic sense of belonging for who they are not just what they do, a space to learn, ask questions and admit mistakes, an invitation to contribute ideas and perspectives and an opening to challenge the status quo.

Things Only Get Better By Talking About Them

By the end of the webinar, the senior leaders had new tools, insights and commitments to better tend to the connective tissue in their teams and with each other. If that sounds like something you’d like to bring to your team, use the contact form to send an enquiry and let’s chat!