Actionable Meetings and 11 Tips for Psychological Safety

Your vision is that when you hold meetings, they would be actionable, your employees would feel psychologically safe and be engaged.

The dilemma is you find yourself holding meetings where people aren’t responding as you would expect. Have you thought about the psychological safety needs of employees? Is it that they don’t care about the topic? Do they have too many other things going on? Or do they feel uncomfortable giving you real feedback and answers? This article walks through who to invite to meetings, tips for actionable meetings, and what it means for an environment to be psychologically safe.

The case of needing actionable meetings and psychological safety.

Let's look at an executive-level manager holding weekly meetings for project launch updates.

You have the same meeting every Wednesday at 10am and see people on their phones, some people have little to offer despite the topics seeming relevant to them, and sometimes you even leave meetings a little more confused than when you got there regarding the next steps. It’s common for certain people to show up a few minutes late, and then time is spent to catch them up. Some people are virtual, and you notice that some are notorious for leaving their camera off, and it’s difficult to know whether they are hearing the conversation or driving in the car.

Focus on meetings being actionable and psychologically safe

The solution is to consider a different approach to meetings regarding inviting and the environment provided by focusing on psychological safety.

Have you ever stopped to consider whether your team feels safe to give honest answers and feedback in meetings?

First, let's look at inviting the right participants to make meetings actionable.

These are considerations for determining who may be able to skip the meeting or those to at least have a conversation with.

1. If you’re unsure who should be invited, you could simply ask the people being considered if they need to be in the meeting. They may be unsure themselves, so make sure you have a clear plan and agenda before asking.

2. Determine if each invitee has an actionable outcome expected after reviewing the agenda and outcomes. If not, the person could likely be removed.

3. Are you able to look through the invite list and determine each person's specific role?

4. If it’s a routine meeting, do you notice there are repeatedly quiet people and have little to offer?

5. Do you have people who bring negativity and drag down the team?

6. Do you have a person who tends to steal the spotlight each meeting?

7. Do you notice people present who tend to be on their phones or disengaged?

Second, here are some basic tips for more effective meetings before we get into further details.

1. Start the meeting on time. Be respectful of the people who were on time and their time.

2. This may seem obvious, but include only the necessary people. Think about the cost of a meeting and look at that next time you schedule a meeting and what works out for each hour when not all of those people need to be there. How much did last Tuesday cost when you had 8 manager levels for 1.5 hours?

3. Develop and stick with an agenda. Distribute the agenda ahead of time, preferably in the meeting invite, so that everyone knows the expectations and can come prepared. Also, note the agenda may have just one item, and that’s fine. You may also want to allow those coming to comment on the agenda or add their own items. Either way, when it's done ahead of time, expectations are set.

4. Clearly state the purpose.

5. Determine if a meeting is really needed. This Atlassian chart is convenient.

6. Ensure the expected results can be acted on. It's useful to recap the end of meetings and add a follow-up section so that they have clear deliverables for the next one when people leave the meeting.

7. Request video be on for virtual meetings and encourage participation in the in-person meetings so that it’s difficult for people to tune out.

Third, let’s talk about psychological safety or the need for people to feel safe to take risks, ask questions, and share their ideas without worrying about embarrassment or rejection.

Psychological safety in this article is discussed in terms of meetings. However, this concept should carry into the work environment as well. Recent studies have shown that people who feel safe in their environment are less likely to quit and more likely to improve their performance. In addition to this, if you're in management, you need to hear honest feedback to avoid wedges between yourself and employees. If you don't take action to provide a safe environment, you're missing out. To build trust and psychological safety, there are some things you can try with employees.

1. Check in with employees once a week, just one on one.

2. Encourage a team lunch or event regularly so that people can get to know each other. This is one exception to a meeting needing an agenda; this should be a free and open conversation.

3. Try using communication tools when asking questions. Google Hangouts, Slack, etc., may allow people to feel more comfortable sharing vs. being in a large group. For some people, just having to speak in front of others can be why they don't bring up the things they should.

4. Try smaller meetings. Three to five people have an easier time talking with each other.

5. Use the features of virtual meeting software such as breakout rooms, hand raising, chat, and polls. If you establish at the start of meetings these will be used, the hand raising and chat in particular, it can slow some of the talking over people. As for polls, if the topic is sensitive, that can be a way for people to provide thoughts on a topic without being subjected to rejection by the team.

6. Be open to feedback. You need to know the information they have, and if you set the tone to accept feedback, they feel safe, and you’re in the loop.

7. Show your team that you listen when they speak by making eye contact, staying off of your phone, and asking questions to ensure you understand.

8. Repeat what your team said to you by saying things like, “I want to make sure I understand, and I hear you say ABC, is that correct?”

9. If you find you have negativity on the team, you need to talk with them about it so that it doesn’t spread around.

10. If a meeting is focused around a decision that was made, explain to the team the logic for it. This provides transparency and understanding. Even if they don’t like the decision, they will have insight into why and how it was made.

11. Lastly, give your team credit when due. When someone in the meeting has a great idea, make sure to share that while giving proper credit.

Try some of these ideas the next time you schedule a meeting and comment on how it went!

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Written by Nicole Hullihen, July 10th, 2021

Recommended references to learn more about psychological safety and effectiv

Barnett, G. (n.d.). 8 Ways to Create Psychological Safety in the Workplace. The Predictive Index. Retrieved from https://www.predictiveindex.com/blog/psychological-safety-in-the-workplace/.

Dupont-Goff, S. (2021, Mar 10). How to run effective meetings and thrive. Atlassian Blog. Retrieved from https://www.atlassian.com/blog/teamwork/how-to-run-effective-meetings.

Paulise, L. (2020, Sep 8). How To Increase Psychological Safety In A Virtual Team. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/lucianapaulise/2020/09/08/how-to-increase-psychological-safety-in-a-virtual-team/?sh=189e1e241abd.

Stone, M. (2018, July 3). Who should be at the table? Tips for selecting your meeting attendees. Atlassian Blog. Retrieved from Selecting meeting attendees - tips for maximizing your team's productivity (atlassian.com).