Laurie Smith MSN, RN, NEA-BC, PCC’s Post

You WANT your team to disagree with you at times. Creating an environment where healthy dissent is not only accepted, but embraced is the pinnacle of psychological safety. Why is this important? Imagine a team that agrees with everything you say and does not feel they are supported to disagree with you. As leaders, we know that we don’t have all of the answers. Group think falls short of what teams are truly capable of. Often, our best innovative ideas come from our teams. When our team is comfortable enough to speak up, success comes from the collective creativity of the team as a whole. 🤔 How do you foster healthy dissent? Try assigning someone on the team to be “the dissenter”. Their job is to find fault with whatever idea or concept is being considered. This accomplishes a number of things: 1.    Models safety to speak up-leadership must support them to do so 2.    Increases innovation-the team then builds upon great ideas or shifts in a direction that may not have been possible with group think 3.    Increases trust-when individuals see others speak up and find support from leadership, they begin to trust that this will happen again 4.    Improves collaboration-when teams know that healthy dissent isn’t personal and it is done in a professional manner, they are more likely to collaborate and help each other find solutions to barriers Thanking team members for speaking up is another simple and effective way to model safety for differing perspectives. Follow through on leadership accountabilities is also key to developing and maintaining trust as teams speak openly. ⭐ Invest your time in fostering a climate of healthy dissent. It will be worth your while. #nurseleaders #trust #innovationinhealthcare