Why are outside voices effective? The psychological appreciation of a new voice

In my previous article in this series, I reflected on the benefits of an outside voice. It was a positive reflection; however, assuming that all visiting speakers and trainers are successful would be false. Not all organisations or individual consultants are a good 'fit'. In talking with colleagues about this subject, there are examples of expertise resulting in "high cost and low impact". The overriding experience from the leaders I spoke to was a positive one. No leader with examples of a challenging experience saw it as a reason to avoid external consultants or expertise. They provided a better understanding of what would work in their context.

The quotes below are from 3 leaders with experience in leading c: a corporate leadership consultant and two senior leaders in International Schools. They reflect how leaders see the benefits of an external voice—that of an impartial expert and mentor. 

• The notion is to bring in an 'honest broker' who is not overly invested in the organisation and can identify areas to work on and suggest ways forward in the spirit of 'expertise' to rely upon.  

• 'neutral and objective expertise, supporting the organisation's leaders to lead the change rather than leading themselves'

• An external voice can be very helpful... by providing a "balcony" and expert view, or just a, as much as possible, non-biased one.

So, what is the psychology behind this? Why do students and teachers exhibit positive behaviour when given this type of guidance? There are, of course, a few reasons. This article explores psychological safety and the appreciation of a new voice, an aversion to familiarity. 

The expression, familiarity breeds contempt, is well-used in literature, famously by Chaucer and Mark Twain. Trust develops from familiarity, yet a reluctance can grow to see leaders as 'experts' when, as well as leading pedagogical development, senior leaders and teams devise schedules, plan meetings, make decisions about student behaviour, set policy and decide on staff pay rises or contractual obligations. These varied responsibilities of leaders can create conflict and certainly provide many opportunities for the 'expertise' of senior school leaders to be questioned. Negative reflections on leadership may be subjective opinions, yet motivation and emotion directly impact the success of professional development (PD) programming. 

Recent scientific research has discovered that familiarity is a factor that shifts in importance for young people. Consecutive studies by researchers at Stanford University found that young people's brains evolve to be less focused on their parent's voices and more attuned to new voices. The studies examined 7-12-year-olds in 2016 and then 13-16-year-olds in 2022. Using patterns of voices and noises to stimulate their senses, they examined MRI scans of brain activity. They found that neurologically, how brain activity responded to prompts, such as their mother's voice or new voices and sounds, changed as they became teenagers. At younger ages, children's brains are 'wired' to listen to their parent's voices. As they age, this evolves to prioritise focus on new voices and sounds. 

They have yet to repeat the same study with teachers instead of parents. It is not a significant leap to consider that this brain chemistry may play a part in teenage students' behaviour.

Psychological safety is a concept that resonates with my own experience in different schools. As a leader, I always hope to lead in ways that create strong learning cultures. As discussed earlier, there is a potential conflict between the roles we fill in leading programmes like the IB Diploma. For my students, can they see the positive similarity between a supportive school leader providing advice and the same school leader implementing interventions regarding missed deadlines? Equally, I always encourage open dialogue and collaboration for my teams. How can I ensure that my team take difficult professional conversations and feedback on their individual and collective practice positively? This is particularly important when leading change, in curriculum for example. Language is essential. Human beings make mistakes, need space to learn. Can I respond with curiosity and encouragement and avoid over criticising their effort or worse, exasperation? How I plan for and respond to the people in my team significantly impacts culture.  

These different responsibilities and actions should not run counter and compete with each other, yet they often do from a psychological perspective.

High-performance athletes within team sports need psychological safety to perform at their best. A team with low confidence take fewer risks and is cautious. As a result, they are less creative and unable to express themselves fully during play. A happy team that is confident in its leaders will listen to critique, take risks, and play 'without fear'. Successful interventions when leading students and colleagues are built on mutual trust and ownership of responsibility. More negative interactions often stem from situations when one of those is lacking. 

Team Psychological Safety is a term developed by Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School. Dr Edmondson's study of clinical teams showed higher performance levels in teams that made the most mistakes. The study uncovered that teams with better outcomes admitted more mistakes and worse-performing teams hid theirs because of concern over repercussions. Dr Edmondson showed that Team Psychological Safety is associated with learning behaviour, but team efficacy is not. Edmondson, A. (1999). 

A recent Harvard Business Review article, based on an interview with Edmondson, quotes, "The relationship between psychological safety and performance is stronger in situations where the results or work aren't prescribed (in advance), when you're doing something creative, novel, or truly collaborative" (Gallo, 2023).

The interview outlines some vital leadership practices that support psychological safety.

Make clear why employees' voices matter.

Admit your own fallibility.

Actively invite input.

Respond productively.

Most people reading this will appreciate the nature of these practices. Many will also have personal experience of how hard it can feel to practise them and their use or lack of in their place of work. 

Good professional development promotes novel creativity, encourages open-minded reflection and is built on collaborative activity. The most important indicator that PD programmes in schools are impactful is when an outcome is a feeling of psychological safety for the team involved. This might exist already or develop through the PD process. As Alan Williams discusses in his work, culture and shared values are highly impactful in creating successful organisations. Alan works with various large organisations, focusing on a collaborative, value-led approach to defining shared practices that support organisational culture. In his book, The 31 Practices, honesty, trust and accountability are seen as positive values, while blame, revenge and manipulation are limits to a strong culture (Williams & Whybrow, 2013).

Kim Scott provides many examples in support of trust and accountability in her book Radical Candor (2023). One has stayed with me, partly because I learned the same lesson during my own career, sadly the hard way. The story tells of an underperforming staff member who was fired from their post after 8 months. In that time, their work was assessed as substandard. The fired team member's response goes to the heart of psychological safety: “Why did nobody tell me?” In this case, Kim Scott did not feel safe expressing honest feedback. As Scott explains, she needed to learn how essential giving feedback was to her team's success and her leadership. No one else on the team felt able to share their concerns, and there was no mechanism to support the individual struggling to meet expectations. My experience is not of firing anyone but of cultures where feedback was often not emphasised and, in essence, didn't happen. Expectations were set but not always clear. More time and focus on the system would have ensured that team members received feedback more frequently. 

Many teachers and leaders want to develop more comprehensive and sustainable feedback systems. I am proud that middle leaders in our mentor programme feel that they are in safe environments where they can share, reflect and try out new skills and practices. The freedom of the workshop experience should not be an oasis. Teachers are successful when they believe the same receptive environment exists when they return to their community to share their learning.

We want to encourage leaders to grow a culture of psychological safety within their school teams because it leads to increased collaboration and continued improvement in practice. Building Psychological Safety is a process that Dr Edmondson insists has to be collaborative, so we encourage teachers to take risks and speak with candour. While it is uncomfortable sometimes, learning to request and engage in professional conversations on challenging issues is critical.

Schools with successful PD programmes prioritise their faculty's learning, fully resource programming, and provide autonomy and clear career support. They work extremely hard to promote collaborative dynamics to counter any negativity that may build up within their community. 

These schools also bring in outside expertise to support learning at all levels of the school, from boardrooms down to the classroom. They do this because an external voice and a well-judged programme can encourage motivation and buy-in.

Professional growth and programme development in schools can be challenging. Leaders must work to support psychological safety and respond with curiosity when mistakes occur. Then, diverse voices can be encouraged, and growth and collaboration will likely follow. 

Abrams, D.A. et al. (2016) 'Neural circuits underlying mother's voice perception predict social communication abilities in children', Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(22), pp. 6295–6300. doi:10.1073/pnas.1602948113. 

Abrams, D.A. et al. (2022) 'A neurodevelopmental shift in reward circuitry from mother's to nonfamilial voices in adolescence', The Journal of Neuroscience, 42(20), pp. 4164–4173. doi:10.1523/jneurosci.2018-21.2022.

Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999

Gallo, A. (2023) What is psychological safety?, Harvard Business Review. Available at: https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety (Accessed: 07 November 2023). 

Scott, K. (2023) Radical candor: Be a kick-ass boss without losing your humanity. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. 

Williams, A. and Whybrow, A. (2013) The 31 practices how companies can become the best versions of themselves. London: LID.