PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY (THE RICHMOND METHOD)

Ever since the outrageous turnaround from Richmond 2016 to Richmond 2017 and to now, we've heard a lot about their culture and how it is such a major driver of their on and off field success of recent years.

These notes are taken from an article by Laura Delizonna who is an executive coach with an expertise in psychological safety to optimise team performance who has actually written an entire book on the subject.

At local/amateur level we have so much to focus on that culture is hopefully just something "that happens" off the back of other things we do but there has to be a focus on it to get it started and here's how psychological safety is the very first step in doing that.

• There’s no team without trust
• Psychological safety is knowing you won’t get punished when you make a mistake
• Allows for moderate risk taking, speaking your mind, creativity and sticking your neck out without fear which is the type of behaviour that leads to breakthroughs
• In uncertain environments the brain processes a provocation by a coach/boss as a life or death threat and the amygdale, which is the alarm bell in the brain, ignites the fight or flight response hijacking higher brain centers which is to act first and think later which can lead to brain structure shutting down perspective/analytical reasoning so when you need it the most it's not available
• Fight or flight is great for life threatening episodes but is a terrible in strategic thinking situations
• Success in 2021 and beyond depends on the broaden and build mode of positive emotion (trust, curiosity, confidence, inspiration) which allows us to solve complex problems and to foster cooperative relationships
• We become more open-minded, resilient, motivated and persistent when we feel safe
• Humor increases as does solution finding divergent thinking – a cognitive process underlying creativity
• When environments are challenging but not threatening, oxytocins levels in our brains rise to elicit trust and trust making behaviour
• Approach conflict as a collaborator not an adversary (how can we achieve a mutually desirable outcome?)
• Speak human to human as everyone pretty much has/wants the same issues/things as you (hopes, anxieties, vulnerabilities, friends, family, children v feeling respected, appreciated, competent, peace, joy, happiness)
• Anticipate reactions and plan countermoves
• Replace blame with curiosity (what do they know/sense, are they seeing/predicting etc)
• Ask for feedback on delivery
• Measure psych safety

In football terms this can be as simple as changing some age old training "habits" that coaches and players have that are long overdue to be given the flick such as these 2 below:

Running Punishments

• you want your players to run during games but at training they often run because of something that has gone wrong so it's associated with a bad experience and thus it will not become 2nd nature like you want it to

Ball Hits the Ground Turnover

• we're local/amateur footballers and to think the ball never hits the ground in a game is delusional and you need to train what DOES happen over what you WANT to happen, especially if it's our your team's grasp. I remember the great Sam Mitchell (Hawthorn scum unfortunately) had the ball coming through the middle of the ground and had nothing forward to go to and looked sideways. He saw that a teammate was running off to the interchange bench so he just kicked the ball out there for the player coming on to run onto. The smartest kick and VFL/AFL history would have been deemed a turnover at footy training and the ball given to the opposition. If the ball hits the ground but can still be played by the offensive team without interference then let it go for god's sake!

There are 2 simple examples of psychological safety that you can instill in your very first training session for 2021 - can you think of some others? If so post them below.