Cultivating Psychological Safety at Work: Accelerating Trust on Teams

Last month, 52Limited and Radius ECD hosted a virtual event featuring my new talk, Accelerating Trust on Teams, as part of their Cultivating Psychological Safety at Work series.

[Download the Presentation PDF: Ciara Pressler – 52Limited 2020.11]

Who’s your business therapist?

Trust starts and ends with relationships. It’s vital to have people you can go to when you need to talk through work challenges. But you can’t just grab anyone and start spilling your problems; create and cultivate relationships over time so that there is balance and mutual support.

American culture doesn’t set us up for success.

The myth of the individual discovering, creating, or succeeding in a vacuum is embedded in American culture, but it’s not serving us. Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It takes community, collaboration, and the agility to become part of a team.

My 20+ year journey of learning about successful teams…

Throughout my career, I’ve been part of a wide variety of teams, and I’ve learned valuable lessons from each one. Here are my best takeaways from some of my favorite teams:

How Theater Builds Successful Teams

  • Clear roles.
  • Firm deadlines.
  • Potential for advancement.
  • Applause.

How Athletic Discipline Builds Successful Teams

  • Show a complete map.
  • Match by ability.
  • Friendly competition.

How Startups Build Successful Teams

  • Hire well.
  • Trust others’ expertise.
  • Level up together.

How our New Year’s Goal Brunch Builds Successful Teams

  • Fresh start.
  • Learn from failure
  • Contribute to others’ success.

How Spiritual Communities Build Successful Teams

  • Not perfect.
  • Possibility.
  • Group over individual.

How to Sabotage a Team

  1. Perfectionism.
  2. Unsolicited advice.
  3. Overwork.
  4. Poor boundaries.
  5. Lack of self awareness.

Where have you felt freedom, trust and possibility in a group? What were the contributing factors?