Psychological safety anti-patterns
Psychological safety is one of those evergreen topics: we all know we need it, everybody wants it, but it’s hard to measure and is hard to actually produce. It’s certainly something we talk to our coaching clients and workshop participants all the time!
I recently gave a talk at a Tech Leading Ladies meetup, looking at four ways that we all might be accidentally sabotaging our efforts, how to recognise them, and what to do about it:
- Assuming that it is set-and-forget: once we have team trust to a good level, that it will always stay that way.
- Ignorance is bliss: assuming that if nobody has expressed a lack of safety that there are no problems.
- A flat hierarchy means there’s no power imbalance. As everyone is equal, we have psychological safety because everyone’s voice has equal weight.
- Everyone knows that only leaders have enough context to make the big decisions. Everyone can just trust their leader.
The list looks simplistic and the fallacies of thinking are easy to spot. The situations that cause this to arise are more complex, and addressing the problem is harder.
If you’d like to know more (including what to do if you aren’t a manager and want to work towards building psychological safety), read up the full details on the blog.
~ Nicola
What’s been happening?
Leadership coaching
As a leader you believe you should know the answers. You feel responsibility and ownership to drive work forward. You aim to make perfect decisions but get bogged down and you keep finding caveats. You might not have clear priorities from stakeholders which makes it challenging to communicate clarity to your team. You are unhappy with the status quo and unsure how to make change happen. As a leader, you have a lot on your plate and are time-poor, you don’t feel like you are across all the ongoing projects.
Let us support you to grow your capabilities, strengthen your skills, so you can overcome your current challenges and approach future ones with more confidence and resilience. With leadership coaching you will increase your effectiveness, and inspire engagement from everyone around you.
Our leadership coaching is typically one hour, delivered online, every two weeks. This lets you stay on top of your responsibilities, while being frequent enough to work on and practice the skills you need to meet the challenges of the moment.
What are we reading?
- Retrospectives Antipatterns — Aino Corry describes and offers solutions for three common blockers to effective retrospectives: skipping generating insights, getting lost in things you can't change, and being dominated by a loudmouth.
- College students used Meta’s smart glasses to dox people in real time — The Verge details the way this project, designed as a demo, shows how easily existing tech can be misused and highlights how to protect yourself.
- What is the Eisenhower Matrix? + How to use it to prioritise tasks — we’ve been referencing this task prioritisation method a lot recently in coaching sessions so here’s an excellent article summarising the approach.
- The Disappearance of an Internet Domain: How geopolitics can alter digital infrastructure — when the British government announced it was transferring sovereignty of an island in the Indian Ocean to the country of Mauritius, Gareth Edwards immediately realised its online implications: the end of the .io domain suffix. Here, he explores how geopolitical changes can unexpectedly disrupt the digital world.
- How to implement silent meetings — unlike traditional meetings, where participants engage in constant verbal discussions, silent meetings encourage individuals to share their thoughts and ideas more thoughtfully. Justin Bateh explores the benefits of this approach and how to implement it.
- I've been writing software for the last 25 years. Here some things I learned so far — Rodrigo Panachi shares key lessons from a significant career.
- Eff-Off Money: Financial independence for tech workers — Kris Howard has written up a recent talk she gave at the October meetup of Sydney Technology Leaders. Nobody at Blackmill is close to FI or RE yet, but we can dream, right?
A cuppa with Swapnil Ogale
1. What do you do? And what do you like about your work?
I am currently a Technical Writer in an Prototyping and Cloud engineering excellence team at Amazon Web Services (AWS) Australia. This is a relatively new role in a new team, so I am still finding the pace and cadence of all things documentation with the team. With my previous team, I was responsible for creating, managing and owning the external-facing technical content and artefacts for our customer solutions.
I love the fact that I get to work on some amazingly cool technological projects and then get to write about it — that is literally my job.
Outside work, I have been actively engaged in running meetup events and wrangling a documentation community across Australia since 2016. So far, I've hosted over 71 meetup events, and chaired 6 annual conferences all around Australia.
2. What aspect of your work do you find most challenging?
I relish the technical and creative challenges of simplifying something very complex into easy to read and digestible matter. Folks often believe that docs get produced at the drop of a hat, but there are many stages and layers involved in creating useful and usable documentation, and each one throws up their own set of unique problems, so I often have to find time to learn about new things all the time to be able to do my job efficiently.
I often secretly think of myself like the character "Trinity" in the Matrix movie — where she has to rescue Neo on the rooftop. She has never flown a helicopter before, so she asks her operator to teach her how to do it, within seconds. That's often technical writers — learning and absorbing new concepts, but synthesising and simplifying them so that the end users do not have to!
3. What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about building communities that help folks in whatever way that best works for them. After working in the tech industry, at some point, you definitely feel the need to connect with your tribe, to find folks who share the same interests as you, and are happy to lend their ear and their expertise to help you navigate your career smoothly.
Communities with a common purpose help achieve this and so when one of my networks started failing me, I decided to bring something that I had seen work successfully outside, into Australia. This community (Write the Docs Australia) is still going strong and I am proud as punch to see it grow and help folks in many different ways, be it public speaking, career opportunities, networking, or personal growth. I am still finding joy in facilitating events and trying to bring a world-class experience to the conference Down Under.
4. What are recent accomplishments you are happy with?
While writing and explaining things via the medium of documentation is my happy place, over the last couple of years, I've found myself mentoring other junior writers or folks who are curious about documentation and I am really enjoying these interactions. I've always felt that I missed out on being mentored or finding someone who could guide me in the early days of my career, but I definitely want to share my experiences and knowledge and hopefully help other folks who want to get into this profession.
Recently, one of my mentees, who I've been mentoring for the last few months, published his first paid article and he got back to me saying he has really benefited from the advice I provided to him over our various chats. I was happy to have helped him find something of meaning and something that will help him over the long run.
Another recent accomplishment is getting a book published. While I am only one of the authors on this book Technical Writing Process: Timeless Techniques, I am proud to have contributed to a brand new chapter in this edition of the book called "Design". It was a very challenging experience writing a book, but the effort was worth it!
5. What is one mistake that you will never make again?
Where do I begin! I find we generally don't own up to our mistakes, but over the years, I've found that making mistakes is actually the best thing we can do to grow ourselves. Mistakes also make for some great presentation material at public events! At conferences, I've had more fun talking about all the things we messed up on, than actual wins, because that is what other folks like listening to, and identifying with.
While there have been quite a few mistakes, one of them that I am not very likely to make again is to let someone else take credit for my work. I am 100% accountable for what I create and am happy to own up to any shortcomings, but at the same time, I also want to make sure that my work is valued, and my contributions respected.
At a previous company, I felt vulnerable when someone who had nothing to do with our technical content actually took all the credit and got all the accolades. While the work was a team-effort, it was disheartening to see that none of my contributions or feedback was appreciated. From then on, I've absolutely made sure that all my work is properly documented and visible from Day 1! I also make sure all my other teammates get their due when we deliver on a key initiative or a project.
6. How do you manage stress?
Thankfully, I am in one of those careers that is not highly stressful. Whether that is by design or careful planning, I am not quite sure.
Working in software documentation is not as stressful as some of the other time-critical professions. Having said that, there have been stressful situations in some of my previous roles, and I manage it by, wait for it, more writing! I find writing down what caused the stress and how I can better work on it next time around is actually a great way to manage it. In the heat of the moment though, a calm cup of tea, some music and focussed work usually does the trick.
I also find doing outdoor activities like going on a walk, or riding a bike, or spending time with the family often helps release happy hormones.
7. What is the best advice you can give?
I think the ability to have the courage to speak up is as good an advice as any. A lot of folks get through their careers feeling a strong imposter syndrome, but through my experiences, I've discovered that each individual has a story to tell, so they should not be afraid to speak up when the situation demands. So, speak up!
8. What one thing would you change about our society?
I am often one who sees the good in people and I'd love to see society start from there. Often, we carry biases (for whatever reason) and that stops us from seeing the good gesture, the noble thought, the honest attempt that people make. I would love to see folks start from that premise every single time and find where it takes them. Sure, you would come across some negative experiences or bad characters, but we need to be more open as a society to see beyond that.
9. What are your goals or aspirations for this year?
This may sound a bit corny, but one of my goals this year is to spend some time in a country where it rains a lot, just sit there and watch the rain. Growing up in a place like Mumbai where the rains absolutely lash the city merciless during the monsoon season, I've often missed being stuck (or unstuck) in that sort of mad dance of the angry clouds here in Melbourne where the clouds hastily depart as quickly as they have assembled, so I really want to go and spend a few weeks watching the rain (possibly somewhere tropical and it rains buckets!).
Professionally, I really want to grow my skills and provide thought leadership in my area of expertise. My current organisation provides me a lot of opportunities to do that, and I want to use this to grow as a documentation leader.
What is Swapnil cooking?
While not technically my own recipe (so I take no credit whatsoever), my go-to dish these days is a quick-and-easy Kadipatta (Curry leaves) Chicken. We have an overabundance of curry leaves in our backyard, so whenever I feel like making something for lunch, I'll get some curry leaves, and get this dish happening in no time. The only prep required is marinating the chicken for 30 mins before cooking.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
SPICES (for dry roasting)
- 1 tbsp black peppercorns
- 4 to 5 Dry red chilies (optional)
- 1 cup curry leaves (kadipatta)
- 1 tbsp Coriander seeds
- ½ tsp Cumin seeds
- 2 tsp desiccated coconut
MARINATE CHICKEN
- 250g chicken thighs
- ⅓ cup yoghurt
- a pinch of salt
- Juice of 1 lemon
FOR GROUND MASALA
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 small onion
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 3 green chilies (optional)
OTHER INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- Marinate the chicken: in a bowl, add chicken, yoghurt, salt, and juice of one lime and toss. Keep this aside for 20 minutes.
- Prepare the spices:
- In a pan on medium heat, add all the ingredients mentioned under “dry roast spices” and roast till the curry leaves become crispy.
- Transfer this to a blender or mixer and blend it to a smooth powder. Using a mortar and pestle is also effective and more natural.
- Prepare the Ground Masala: in another blender or mixer, add garlic cloves, onion, ginger, green chilies, and a few tablespoons of water and blend it to a smooth paste.
- Cook:
- In a pan on medium heat, add oil and cumin seeds. Once cumin seeds start to sizzle, add onion and sauté on medium flame until onion becomes translucent.
- Add the marinated chicken, ground masala (from Step 3), and mix it well. Next, add the curry leaves powder from Step 2, mix, and add 1 or 2 tablespoons of water only if needed. Cover this and cook on low flame till water evaporates for about 5 minutes.
- Add salt to taste, and mix. Cover and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Finally, cook with the lid open until the masala dries out and coats the chicken.
- Serve with rice or naan, with a side dish of salad
And we’re out
Thank you for showing an interest in our newsletter and we hope that you enjoyed the read. Feel free to contact us if you have any feedback, a burning question, or just a recipe that you would like to share.
Until next time, keep learning!
Everyone at Blackmill