Thank you, I believe you, tell me more
While there are many summaries of practices that foster Psychological Safety there is a recipe that I've picked up recently which I believe is supremely powerful both at work and in life (especially with children).
The recipe allows us to gracefully handle the delivery of negative news, negative feedback, or general disagreement creating an environment which encourages open and honest communication. The reasoning is that open and honest communication will allow us to get the heart of the problem, and then, hopefully tackle it.
It is surprisingly simple and boils down to framing our response in these terms (in order):
- Thank you for sharing it with me
- I believe you
- Tell me more