Greenhouse Engineering: Cultivating People and Innovation Through Environment.

For any organisation operating in a domain of uncertainty and interdependence, an environment where people and ideas can thrive is crucial. An empowering environment is not just a “nice to have”; it’s a strategic imperative and for those that succeed it's a competitive advantage. It's the responsibility of everyone in the team to help develop it, leaders are not just the people with the title. 

When teams feel empowered, they are more engaged, productive, and committed to their work. The benefits are far-reaching and their organisations see increased amounts of innovation, higher employee engagement and stronger team cohesion. Empowered teams that trust each other and collaborate effectively are more likely to achieve their goals and drive success.

I’m a big fan of the term “Greenhouse Engineering,” it’s a concept coined by the late Tony Hsieh of Zappos, it brings to life the idea that productivity and importantly people thrive in a healthy environment and when it’s not working it’s not worth shouting at the plants. Leaders need to focus on the greenhouse, designing an environment where innovation and creativity are not just encouraged but are the natural outcomes. Tony focused on the physical environment he believed in creating as many 'serendipitous' collisions throughout the day and from the collisions came new ideas and human connection. In today's world we get less of these but the idea of the work environment as a greenhouse is still a powerful way to think about the conditions that we create for our teams to thrive. There's lots of contributing factors to building a successful greenhouse. Some of them vary depending on organisation size and scale, but some dont change, my experience building these has found that a number of key factors consistently surface, this is independent of organisation size however the complexity of developing them does align. In bigger organisations communication channels are broader, objectives more complex and teams are often more siloed.  

1. The Power of Psychological Safety

At the core of an empowering environment is psychological safety. This term, championed by Amy Edmondson, echoes through many leadership books and refers to a belief held by team members that they can take risks, express ideas, and make mistakes without facing negative consequences. 

Amy calls this being in the learning zone (see below). People move around this chart all the time and there's a different chart for every team and project, for example a CEO might be in the learning zone when working with their team but a more anxious zone with the board, a team member might be in the learning zone with their functional team but in the apathy zone when operating in a cross team project. It's useful to consider where you feel you are and where other members of your team are too. 

When psychological safety, and accountability is high, individuals and teams exhibit greater creativity and innovation. High psychological safety nurtures motivation by allowing team members to explore new ideas without fear of failure, something Dan Pink, in his book “Drive,” emphasises in the form of intrinsic motivation autonomy, mastery, and purpose is critical for creative work.

Indicators of Psychological Safety:

• Open and honest communication is the norm.

• Team members feel comfortable challenging the status quo.

• Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities to improve rather than failures.

How to Improve Psychological Safety:

Reflecting if your team has a good level of psychological safety is important, it will change over time, especially if your company is going through change, so it’s useful to never stop considering how you might improve things. A good place to start is by reflecting on the following 3 questions. 

• Do ALL team members regularly share their opinions without hesitation?

• Are mistakes met with criticism, including subtle responses like body language, huffs, eyerolls etc 

• How often do team members provide productive candid feedback to each other (this takes practice to do without being a jerk)

• Can you dissect failure openly and constructively without it feeling like blame

In my role leading teams there are a few actions that I’ve found beneficial, they’re not revolutionary but they do help!

• Model vulnerability, share stories of mistakes you’ve made in your past and the lessons you learnt. Talk of your experiences of good and bad cultures, help your team understand what defines your opinions and why you believe everyone benefits from a positive culture. 

• Regularly solicit feedback from team members and act on it, do this in public and also in private. Look for opinions that challenge you (in particular ones that generate an immediate emotional response those responses often signify a bias or assumption) and listen! approach from a position of empathy and curiosity. Try to avoid immediately dismissing a challenge, start by receiving it graciously with thanks and appreciating that it’s often hard to surface.

• Create forums for open dialogue, meetings such as “blameless post-mortems” or regular team retrospectives. If you are operating in an environment that might feel hostile, use tools like the Prime Directive to help set the tone - (Pin it on the wall if you need to!) - Remember ‘better teams’ report more mistakes. 

• Give praise and gratitude every time. When people do great things let them know, do it in public and private.

2. Fostering a Culture of Collaboration

Innovation rarely happens in isolation, it’s hard and history shows us it often comes from embracing failure, It’s important to try and avoid the sunk cost fallacy which is where open communication and measurements of progress can help. Teams need to be collaborating effectively (with psychological safety) with clear communication and goals. The most groundbreaking ideas often emerge from diverse perspectives and cross-functional collaboration. I believe this is the measurable benefit of DEI programmes, creating an environment where people with diverse opinions feel valued and safe is a tactical advantage, it leads to a wider range of ideas, without psychological safety however diversity is simply a statistic for HR.

Collaboration starts with trust, when trust is present, teams are more likely to engage in healthy conflict and debate, they share ideas freely and arrive at innovative solutions. It's not just the number and range of ideas that are affected, the business is too. In the words of Stephen Covey author of “The Speed of Trust’

“When trust is low, speed goes down and cost goes up. When trust is high, speed goes up and cost goes down.”

Trust is particularly important but it shouldn't be expected from the start. Teams that have worked together usually have a head start but in larger organisations often team members are from different functional teams and might not have even met each other before, they will also have different reasons for being there. Trust comes from two core functions, Character (integrity, motive and intent) and Competence (capabilities, skills, results and track record), as a team makes commitments and delivers results together trust builds rapidly, people learn about each and the value each member adds. It’s important to look for this and quickly look to resolve issues that are undermining it. 

Indicators of Effective Collaboration:

Effective collaboration can be measured in part by outcomes, does the team deliver, is the team working together and are they focused on the right areas. A few examples of behaviours that indicate effective collaboration:

• Teams regularly engage in cross-functional projects.

• There is a shared understanding and respect for different roles and perspectives.

• Conflict is approached constructively, focusing on ideas rather than personalities.

• Meetings are balanced with contributions from everyone.

• Actions are proactively taken by appropriate members of the group

How to Enhance Collaboration:

• Establish clear communication channels and collaboration tools. Over-communicate and be mindful to include anyone not present at the time. Use asynchronous comms where possible, repeat actions clearly at the end of each meeting and share them as soon as possible.

• Encourage team-building activities that build trust and rapport. Focus on building psychological safety, extend trust and model vulnerability. 

• Rotate team roles to provide new perspectives and skills development use tools and techniques to ensure that individuals respect and nurture each other's opinions. 

• Illicit conversation be sure to ask quieter team members for their opinion.

3. Equipping Teams with the Right Tools and Resources

Creating an environment conducive to innovation also means providing the necessary tools and resources. This isn’t just about having the latest technology; it’s about access to continuous learning opportunities, mentorship, and a support network that fosters growth.

Jim Collins, in “Good to Great,” discusses the importance of getting the right people “on the bus” and then figuring out where to drive it. This means not only hiring talented individuals but also investing their development ensuring they have the skills and confidence to drive innovation and making route planning a team activity.

Indicators of Adequate Resources:

• Team members have access to up-to-date technology and tools.Hardware, software and platforms

• There is a culture of meaningful continuous learning and professional development.

• Mentorship and coaching are readily available, this can be internal and external

How to Provide Better Tools and Resources:

• Conduct regular assessments of the tools and technologies in use and upgrade as necessary.

• Offer workshops, training sessions, learning days, code retreats and opportunities for professional development.

• Develop a mentorship program that pairs less experienced team members with seasoned professionals.

• Trial useful new tools in the team and ask team members to showcase their thoughts.

4. Encouraging Open Communication

Feedback is really important and it starts with positivity. An effective technique to help build trust and psychological safety in a team is to thank team members for divergent thinking. It takes courage to share an opinion or ask a question that challenges current thinking, taking a moment to acknowledge that and offer thanks sets a precedent that encourages others. Feedback should not be considered negative even if its critical. In the best selling book “Radical Candor,” Kim Scott advocates for a leadership style that combines caring personally while challenging directly. Fostering this approach can help create a culture where feedback is a valuable tool for growth that helps to reduce the feeling of personal attack, but it’s hard, it takes practice and requires emotional maturity and psychological safety don’t use it as an excuse to be a jerk!.

In teams where radical candour is effectively practised, communication becomes more efficient and effective, feedback often comes in the forms of questions and those questions are not simply dismissed. Team members learn to give and receive feedback that is clear, kind, and helpful, leading to continuous improvement and a stronger sense of camaraderie.

Indicators of a Culture of Radical Candour:

• Feedback is frequent, clear, and constructive. Sometimes it feels hard to give and receive. 

• Team members feel comfortable speaking up and voicing concerns.

• There is a mutual commitment to personal and professional growth.

• 1 to 1s are focused around meaningful progress and not personal judgement of others

How to Foster Radical Candour:

• Train leaders and team members on giving and receiving feedback, including the timing and audience. Practice and talk about how you felt and reflect personally starting from an assumption that the feedback was given in best interest.

• Create a culture where feedback is a regular part of team interactions, not just a formal process.

• Promote communication, nobody likes big meetings, trust is built through small conversations that evidence capability and delivery. 

• Encourage leaders to demonstrate radical candour by providing honest, constructive feedback.

• Where other team member’s behaviour and performance come up in 1 to 1 conversations avoid gossip and challenge assumptions, encourage questioning and empathy. 

5. Reflecting on Your Environment and Taking Action

Reflection is essential for improvement and innovation. Often in business this takes the shape of retrospectives, de-briefs, ‘after action reviews’ or perhaps even the Pixar ‘Braintrust’ approach, these are all beneficial! There’s more to reflection however it's also important to personally reflect. Business at times can be an emotional thing. It's pretty human to feel frustrated, annoyed, happy and sad when things happen and it’s important that individuals take time to consider why these feelings occur. Frustration in particular can be a really enlightening emotion especially for team leaders. A mentor of mine once told me that stress can be caused by feeling responsible for something you don’t have control of. We might not be able to control everything but we can start by asking if there’s anything we can do to help or by gaining insight into why a situation ‘is the way it is’ approaching from a position of open minded curiosity. This happens in teams too and can be a great conversation for one of those retro meetings!

• Assess the Current Culture: Regularly solicit feedback from your team to understand their experience and identify areas for improvement. Ask people how they feel and enquire why.

• Start Small: Implement small changes that can have a significant impact, such as regular feedback sessions or new collaboration tools.Try to establish measures that can help to evidence change.

• Lead by Example: Demonstrate the behaviours and attitudes you want to see in your team. If you want a culture of innovation, show your willingness to take risks, try new approaches and accept it might not work, find the smallest, quickest way to test out a hypothesis - maximise the work not done!.

Conclusion

When things aren’t working out in our favour it's easy to rush to blame ‘the team’. Some organisations attempt to stack the odds through an obsession with hiring ‘10x’ people in the hope that they pick superstars that deliver golden eggs. I’ve learnt If you’re building an organisation and you’d like to maintain success season after season it’s far more productive to focus on the greenhouse.

The transformative power of an empowering environment has been demonstrated throughout history almost as much as the effects of the crippling drain of disempowerment. There’s far more to a successful greenhouse than just the 5 things I’ve called out here but if you are fostering psychological safety, encouraging collaboration, providing the right tools, practising radical candour, and continuously reflecting on practices, you’re sowing the seeds of a culture of innovation that will drive success for teams, customers, and business.

Building such an environment is not a one-time effort but a continuous process of growth and adaptation trial and error. As leaders, it’s our responsibility to accept responsibility and tend to this greenhouse carefully, ensuring that every individual and every idea has the opportunity to flourish.