I planned to share some broad insights from research into listening and communication. But I discovered one study which I knew you would enjoy in depth. It explores the relationships between listening, creativity and psychological safety.
Listening Leads to Increased Creativity
Dotan R. Castro and his team explored how a supervisor, manager or leader can use listening to impact psychological safety and increase creativity.
The central claim of this research study is the domino effect of listening on psychological safety and creativity.
We argue that listening instils psychological safety in individuals, which makes them feel free to think creatively and express their ideas, and in the end, will increase their creativity.
Here are their three hypotheses:
- Supervisor’s listening is positively associated with subordinate’s psychological safety
- Psychological safety is positively related to creativity.
- The effect of a supervisor’s listening on an employee’s creativity is mediated by the employee’s psychological safety.
The team worked with over 700 participants and used a range of creative fluency, listening and psychological safety surveys and tests.
Here is a summary of some of the key results they discovered.
- the listening manipulation increased individual psychological safety for the speakers (employees)
- Psychological safety was found to be significantly correlated with the fluency-creativity measure.
- In the high-quality listening condition, participants produced more than in the low-quality listening condition.
- high-quality listening similarly increased all measures of creativity.
You can’t just say it’s safe.
We cannot just rely on saying we want a safe space for ideas at the start of a workshop or meeting.
The study positions listening as a critical leadership behaviour which instils an atmosphere conducive to open dialogue.
Listening empathically reduces threat, thus allowing employees to experience a sense of safety, value and acceptance (Rogers & Farson, 1987)
When I ask “what is on your mind?” to a leadership team and then shut up and listen for twenty minutes, the atmosphere is noticeably different to when I explain expectations in intricate detail.
Listen empathically as early as possible if you want to reduce the threat.
Listening signals to the speaker that the listener is giving his/her undivided attention for uninterrupted cognitive processing of what is being said in an emotional atmosphere of trust and openness. These interrelated behavioural, cognitive, and affective aspects of listening should create a sense of psychological safety because they instil confidence in the speaker that at least his/her arguments will receive full consideration and will, thus, be evaluated based on their real worth.
Most of us know we need psychological safety for better teamwork, but saying we want it falls short of demonstrating safety through listening with undivided attention, acceptance and care.
Listen Before Judgement
When it comes to creative ideas and sharing new thinking, we need an initial atmosphere of acceptance.
As soon as we perceive there to be quick, unnecessary judgement, we are more likely to withhold our ideas.
Studies show that people who are concerned about the potential implications of negative reactions of the listeners will refrain from sharing their experiences with others (Pasupathi, McLean, & Weeks, 2009).
When you share a new idea with your team or supervisor, you are putting yourself in a seemingly vulnerable position.
The perception of vulnerability can be a barrier. Only when employees believe their supervisor will not exploit their vulnerability [will] they share their creative ideas (Edmondson, 1999).
James Adams, the author of Conceptual Blockbusting, refers to the preference for judging ideas as an emotional block to creativity.
You will reject many ideas if you analyze or judge too early in the problem-solving process. This is detrimental for two reasons. First of all, newly formed ideas are fragile and imperfect-they need time to mature and acquire the detail needed to make them believable. Secondly, as we will discuss later, ideas often lead to other ideas.
Analysis and judgement are welcome; they are a vital part of creative problem solving; we have to ensure judgement is brought into the process at the right time.
Or, as Castro explains, participants need to be given an honest occasion to provide their perspective in the best way they can without their ideas being judged on the basis of who is talking.
The critical insight from all of this work is the timing of judgement and ensuring we listen to ideas early on.
Psychological Safety Frees Up Your Cognitive Load
A final insight which resonates with me and I want you to reflect on is how we manage our cognitive resources during creative tasks.
In the paper’s general discussion Castro and his team refer to Amy Edmondson’s description of psychological safety as our tacit calculus at micro-behavioral decision points. (Edmondson 1999, p. 258)
In other words, when we feel safe, we do not need to re-assess our vulnerability whenever we want to share an idea. This is tiring and takes up a lot of our cognitive resources.
Continuous appraisals of the interpersonal consequences of each idea may put a heavy burden on the cognitive resources of the actor. Given the central role of working memory in creativity, the cognitive load individuals experience during creative tasks has been found to be a major constraint on the number of creative ideas one can come up with (Roskes, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2012; Sowden, Pringle, & Gabora, 2015).
I had never thought about the link between psychological safety and cognitive load.
Full Citation
Castro, D. R., Anseel, F. J. C., Kluger, A. N., Lloyd, K. J., & Levi, Y. T. (Accepted/In press). Mere-listening effect on creativity and the mediating role of psychological safety. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12(4), 489-502.
⏭🎯 Your Next Steps
Commit to action and turn words into works
- Read the full research study and reflect on the implications within your context.
- Invest time in modelling the safety of the space – listen with empathy.
- Reflect on the levels of acceptance of new ideas you encounter in your team.
🗣💬 Your Talking Points
Lead a team dialogue with these provocations
- What is on your mind? You can’t just say it is safe; demonstrate acceptance.
- Do we judge ideas too soon? Combat the emotional blocks to creativity.
- What does it feel like when people are distracted? Connect with the emotional impact of disconnection.