How the SDI Contributes to Psychological Safety

Psychological safety depends on trust in each other’s intentions, and the SDI assessment can help people bring their best self to a conversation so they feel safe to contribute to the Pool of Shared Meaning.

Whether it be a team or a 1:1 relationship, open and productive dialogue depends on an atmosphere where people in the conversation feel safe to talk about or listen to any topic, no matter how sensitive it may be.

If we believe that another person’s intentions are good, we are more likely to feel safe to openly disagree with them or discuss risky or emotional topics. Trust can often take time to develop, but it can be lost in a few seconds.

Every interaction we have can either build on or detract from that feeling of safety. It could be when we are:

Giving praise or recognition.
Giving developmental feedback.
Agreeing and allocating responsibilities.
Using contrasting statements to help a conversation along.
Stating our intent.
Providing support and comfort.
Inviting people to contribute in meetings.
Showing that we are listening.

In the above situations, and many more, we can inadvertently diminish trust and safety in the relationship if we don’t understand who it is we are communicating with.

For instance, Jean the sales director walks into Sharon’s room holding a spreadsheet and praises Sharon for the money she has brought in this month and for her position on the sales league table. She leaves the room believing Sharon is energised and motivated by her visit. Sharon is in fact thinking, “All Jean thinks about is money and league tables.” If Jean had understood who Sharon was—what her core motives are—she could have walked in with the same spread sheet and praised her for how many clients she has helped this month. (Sharon’s core motive is to help others). Sharon may end up feeling unsafe or reluctant to express her desire to focus on client service.

This is where the SDI comes in. It provides insights into:

Individual motives, drivers, and potential conflict triggers.
How motives might change when in conflict.
The relational strengths that people most often use in their interactions.
The relational strengths people sometimes overuse in their interactions.

The SDI can help us better understand ourselves and the people we work with. This increased understanding can help us express our motives in ways that are productive and authentic for ourselves while also making space for the other person’s motives.

The insights from the SDI help people build trust, foster inclusion, and build more productive relationships by contributing to:

A stable sense of self (SSS): A productive, clear, and stable sense of our own motives, values, and strengths.
A generous view of others (GVO): A productive view of others’ motives, values, and behaviors.

For 20 years much of my work has been focused on helping individuals and teams develop trust in relationships.

I have worked with many teams in which members declare they know each other well. We soon discover, with basic inquiry, that they know very little about each other and that is often why they struggle to hold crucial conversations or why discussions spiral into conflict and animosity.

Fostering Trust in Relationships

The good news is that the SDI can help us foster trust in relationships. And when relationships have ample trust, our interactions become more efficient and productive.

I have seen many 1:1 and team relationships become more effective by following these steps.

1:1 Relationships

Step One: Get to know each other.

The SDI provides several insights that can help us better understand the motives, values, and behaviors of others, including:

What their personal goals are and why they are so important to them.
What energizes them and what contributes to their sense of self-worth.
What really presses their buttons or triggers them.
How to tell if something is bothering them.
The strengths they prefer to use in interactions and why.

Step Two: Let others get to know you (be willing to be vulnerable).

Explore your SDI results with others and let them get to know you better. You may be surprised by how much you learn about yourself in doing this.

Step Three: Discuss what you need from each other to achieve your individual and mutual goals in the relationship.

The SDI helps people see various factors influencing their interactions, including:

What they need from you to get the best out of the relationship.
What you can do to support them in achieving their goals and objectives.
How you will let each other know when things are going well or not so well.
What strengths they want from you and what they need to look like.
How similar or different you are in your motives and drives and how they might complement each other.

Team Relationships: Let your team get to know each other.

We all work in teams with different personalities who have different styles of communicating and contributing.

The safety needs of one person can feel like a lack of safety to another. The SDI can help people recognize and respect the productive motives each person brings to the relationship and to help the team understand, value, and respect each other.

I have noticed that when people spend time getting to know each other and they come to understand the good motives underlying another’s behavior, they are less likely to avoid Crucial Conversations.

If you’d like to learn more about the relationship between the SDI and the skills taught in Crucial Conversations, and how the two complement each other, check out our latest research and ebook, Positively Speaking: How to Build a Speak-Up Culture with Crucial Conversations and the SDI.