How to Create a Fear-Free Culture

Fear is a common problem on many teams. People are afraid to make changes, speak their minds, and make mistakes. Fear is detrimental to performance. If the culture is one of fear, more complex processes or practices will be required to overcome it.

People aren’t afraid of failure. They’re afraid of blame. — Seth Godin

Blaming others only leads to negativity and does not help anyone. Making safety a prerequisite means ensuring safety before undertaking dangerous work. Achieving excellence will be easy if safety is improved after each accident or near-miss. Although monetization is their priority, we must not let it hinder the evolution of Agile.

Creating a culture of continuous learning is essential for safe and effective teams. Retrospectives are also helpful in improving team dynamics. Instead of blaming individuals for failures, we should use post-mortems to learn from mistakes and find solutions. We must be mindful of how we discuss loss as it shapes our team culture. Besides building a positive culture, we must ensure everyone is aligned and involved in team goals. Individuals and groups grow, so the whole organization improves. There is a new movement in the Agile community called “Modern Agile,” which has evolved from traditional Agile methods. This approach has few specific roles, responsibilities, or practices considered the best. Instead, the focus is on the goal of making people awesome. The ultimate purpose is not to create great products or companies but to make customers excellent at what they do with the products or services. Safety is a fundamental human need and a crucial factor in achieving high performance. With safety, it is possible to make people awesome.

[¹]: Modern Agile