the intelligence of the heart
Google has made the notion of Psychological Safety famous, naming it as the #1 critical, essential, never-to-be-left-out component of high performing teams. This metric unexpectedly offers the strongest causality to overall 'success' than any other.
Their results imply that “even the extremely smart, high-powered employees at Google needed a psychologically safe work environment to contribute the talents they had to offer.” Unsurprisingly, the factors that contribute to creating environmental and psychological safety, also describe some of the highest qualities of 'Heart' intelligence:
1. Empathy
2. Respectful candour (aka Truthfulness > Sugar-coating / Gaslighting)
3. Reducing power gradients (aka Fostering a spirit of equality)
4. Deeper listening (aka genuine curiosity)
5. Reward speaking up
6. Embrace differences (vs seeing them as a threat)
To name a few.
How do you know Psychological Safety is low, or in other words, that the cultural 'Heart' Intelligence of your business is in fact, not so intelligent?
1. Fear of asking for / giving candid feedback
2. Provocative / outlier / divergent ideas are not welcome or well-received
3. 'Failure' results in blame and shame rather than a fruitful (and emotionally neutral) opportunity to grow.
I find it interesting that the term is labelled "Psychological" Safety when really it speaks to safety of the whole human and not just the psyche. But when I consider an environment where safety is ABSENT, it is clear to me that the brunt of that negative impact IS experienced in the psyche... A psyche which will try and close the gap between what is authentic and true vs what is 'allowed' to be expressed. The wider this gap is - the greater the uncertainty, the fear, and the mistrust.
True and brilliant heart intelligence atrophies and shrivels in this in this climate - along with aspects of the brilliance and genius of our team members. Where heart intelligence is not valued, the real cost of this loss can never be acknowledged.
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