Learner Safety in Practice

The Leader Factor

Today's episode is part two of our four-part series on the Change Management Principle, Behave Until You Believe. These episodes are focused on the practical application of each of the four stages of psychological safety and focus on the key principles and behaviors that will help you foster an environment of high psychological safety. This week, Tim and Junior talk about what learner safety is, the two domains of learning, why learning is error-driven, and their top 3 picks from the 4 Stages Behavioral Guide as actions we can take to “Behave Until we Believe” in Stage 2 Learner Safety.

What is learner safety? (03:26) As the second stage of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety, learner safety is crucial to ensuring that innovation can flourish in an organization. In this stage, fear is detached from mistakes, and mistakes are rewarded as part of the learning process.

Learning is error-driven (04:29) In order to learn, we can’t always be right. If our environment only rewards correct answers, the expectation will always be perfection, and learning will never be prioritized.

The two domains of learning (12:27) Learner safety encompasses creating a culture of rewarded vulnerability across 2 domains: Formal and informal. As we get older, we lose opportunities for formal learning and rely on creating our own informal learning experiences. The goal in these experiences? Create learning agility.

Behavior 1: Share What You’re Learning (21:47) If nobody knows that learning consistently is encouraged and accepted, they won't want to appear ignorant. Model learning behavior as the first-mover. By acknowledging your ignorance you’re making it safe for them to acknowledge theirs.

Behavior 2: Take Notes (31:48) Your mind is not a steel trap. Taking notes is a physical manifestation of your intent to learn, retain, and improve.

Behavior 3: Identify and Share What You Unlearn (38:57) If knowledge is learning things, wisdom is unlearning things. People and organizations have to let go of what worked before but doesn’t work now, and of what we thought was true, but isn’t.

Important Links
The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety Behavioral Guide