Psychological Safety and Remote Work by Matthew Philip

Over the last four years, the world has experienced an unprecedented shift to remote and hybrid work environments. This poses questions for those interested in high-performing teams, because physical distance from our teammates has created challenges to fostering and increasing psychological safety.

This talk presents original research on and explores the relationship of remote environments and psychological safety. Participants will learn about factors that impact safety in a remote environment and ways to promote safety in remote and hybrid teams, as well as implications for leadership, teamwork and generative work across all environments, in-person, hybrid and remote.

1. Psychological Safety
and Remote Work
Matthew Philip

3. Warmup
Who are the people in your life with whom you can be the most vulnerable and
open?
When was the last time you interacted with them and how?
If it’s been a while, what are the circumstances of your relationship that
contributed to your sense of safety?

4. A tale of two work contexts

7. A Quick Intro to Psychological Safety

8. Google’s Project Aristotle
What makes a
Google team
effective?

9. "a belief that one will not be
punished or humiliated for speaking
up with ideas, questions, concerns,
or mistakes, and that the team is
safe for interpersonal risk-taking"
Amy Edmondson

10. Drive out fear,
so that
everyone may
work effectively
for the company
W. Edwards Deming

11. Safety and Performance
76%
more
engaged 50%
more
producti
ve
75%
less
stresse
d

12. How safety improves project outcomes
When it is not safe 

to share “bad” news
When it is safe 

to share “bad” news

14. To Remote Work or Not To Remote Work

(Is that the Question?)

21. How can we empower our
people to do their best
work, wherever they are?

23. Two Theories about How People Work
Sphere Theory X Theory Y
Attitude Dislike work, find it boring, will avoid if we
can
Need to work, want to take an interest, can
enjoy it
DirectionMust be forced or coerced into complianceDirect ourselves toward an accepted target
Responsibi
lity
Need to be directed, avoid responsibilityThrive on responsibility
MotivationFear, lack of money, lack of job securitySelf-development and to contribute to
some purpose
CreativityLittle, except when getting around rulesHigh when given opportunity and
recognition

24. Brief History of Remote Work
1979
IBM work-from-home experiment


IBM allows five of its employees to
work from home as an experiment.
By 1983, ~2000 IBM employees
work remotely.
Mid-1980s
JC Penney Call Center
JC Penney allows call-center
employees to work from home.
1987
Telecommuting is a thing
1.5 million Americans are
telecommuting.
2005
First Coworking Space
Brad Neuberg creates in San
Francisco the first coworking
space.
2010s
Technology enables remote work
Roughly 20-25% of American
workers working remotely at least
part of the time.
Spring 2020
Covid Response
Approximately 40-45% of
American workers are working
remotely as a result of
lockdowns and social distancing
measures.

27. My Research

28. Does it matter where you
work?
(It depends.)

29. The Survey
Total Safety
Mistakes are held against me
People reject others for being different
It is difficult to ask others for help
I'm able to bring up problems
It's safe to take a risk
No one would deliberately act to
undermine me
My unique skills are valued
Time
in
Conte
xt
Met
Teammate
in Person
Met
Manager in
Person
Days WFH
Type
of
Conte
xt
Size
of
Conte
xt
Last time
interacted in
person
Last time
interacted on
camera

30. What Correlates to Safety?
Met a

Teammate
in Person
Met 

Manager
in Person
Days/Week 

Working
from Home
Time in
Context
Size of 

Context
Total Psychological Safety
Mistakes are held against me
People reject others for being
different
It is difficult to ask others for help
I'm able to bring up problems
It's safe to take a risk
No one would deliberately act to
undermine me
My unique skills are valued

37. Small Size
+Team Structure
+ Some In-Person
Highest Safety

38. Other Research: Norwegian Bank-Alliance Software Company
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?
tp=&arnumber=9978541
Behaviors and Attitudes Onsite Remote Hybrid
Safe to be honest Speaking up in meetings
Providing critical feedback or disagreeing
Asking questions that reveal a lack of knowledge or
understanding
Safe to make
mistakes
Requesting feedback on unfinished work
Not blaming peers for mistakes
Safe to ask for helpAsking each other for help
Valuing each otherGiving each other positive feedback and acknowledging
effort
Feeling of belonging
Easy to
behave
Mixed
experience
Difficult to
behave

39. Chemistry is not possible without safety, and
safety is cultivated less through words and
intelligence and more through disposition/body
language. ... [one of the] main factors that drive
successful team performance ... is frequent eye
contact between members, and conversations
and gesticulations are high energy.
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups

40. So what might we do about it?

41. Checkins and 

Meaningful Conversations

42. “Let’s Talk About…” Sessions
As is customary with "Let's talk about..." this is simply a forum for
sharing our views on a topic so that we can better understand
each other and where we're coming from, in a venue safe from
the stresses of meetings and decision making.
This session is about the concept of "best practices" -- what are
they, when are they appropriate, etc.? We'll also include the
Cynefin model in the conversation.

43. Affirm Honesty and Acts of Safety

44. Less HiPPO, More Elephant

45. After Eight, Don’t Collaborate
Too many people
here!

46. Team Agreements and Explicit Policies

47. Make Space for People to Be Known

48. Personal Operating Manual/API of Me

49. Measure Safety

50. Safety Check

52. Concurrent Work: Pair and Ensemble

53. “Collaborative Friction”

54. https://institute.bankofamerica.com/content/dam/bank-of-america-institute/transformation/caution-safety-first.pdf
Resolve Cognitive Dissonance

55. Make Better Use of In-Person Time

56. Make Better Use of In-Person Time

57. Celebrate Failure

58. Reframe Failure
Traditional Frame Destigmatizing Frame
Concept of Failure Failure is not acceptable. Failure is a natural by-product of
experimentation.
Beliefs About Effective
Performance
Effective performers don’t fail.Effective performers produce, learn
from and share the lessons from
intelligent failures.
Goal Prevent failure. Learn fast.
Impact of Frame People hide failures to protect
themselves.
Open discussion, fast learning and
innovation.

59. Play and Unstructured Time

60. Fika

61. 12 Years Later…

62. Sources and
Resources https://mattphilip.wordpress.com
https://mattphilip.wordpress.com/
Hvala!