I had 132 active minutes, versus an average of 430 over the past several months.
I tweaked my knee on a 5-mile run two Sundays ago and itâs been a little funny ever since. I ignored it for the first week, but I was getting a sharp pain just walking up my house steps! Iâm not typically good at listening to my body, but I finally decided to think long-term and take it easy.
âPeter Attia talks about how important is to stay in the game. If you get injured and canât exercise, you start to lose muscle mass, and itâs hard to get it back (especially for those of us over 40). I didnât want to do something severe to my knee.
What did I do instead of running for two weeks? I did Crossfit (no heavy lifting), walking, and weightlifting. I focused on arms: pullups, push press, and things like that.
Iâm going to start to push it this week, and Iâll try some new shoes!
Iâve used my Vivo Barefoot shoes all year with no issue, but itâs possible that the 3mm of cushion wasnât enough for me. Iâm going to test on some Altra Escalante shoes that have 24mm of cushion (which is called âmediumâ despite being 8x the Vivo!).
My VO2Max had been increasing leading up to this break, but has curved back down. My 2024 goal is to increase it three points from 43 to 46, and Iâm at 45.
How are you doing on your physical goals for 2024? Give me an update at heykev@kevinnoble.xyz.
Kevin đđď¸
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A Quote
â
An effective leader or coach doesnât simply rely on bringing in new players or looking outside the team every time a shift in strategy occurs. The smartest coaches embed the expectation of change in the organizationâs work culture and then develop individual talents in existing team members.
â Michael K. Simpson et. al. in "Unlocking Potential"
Three Things
1 - â¤ď¸đą love.life - John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, has started a new company focused on health and wellbeing. Their first location just opened in LA. Itâs got concierge medical services, fitness, and food all in one place. You can do VO2Max testing, DEXA scans, genetic testing - and pickleball đ¤Ł. Pricing isnât easy to find, but looks like it starts at $9,000 USD per year.
2 - đŠâđť Mem, Notes App - Someone recently shared this note-taking app with me and I wanted to share it with you. As you can tell by the URL, AI features prominently for this app. It uses GPT-4 to allow you to query your own notes, which is a powerful feature (although that convenience comes at the risk of privacy). Let me know if you check it out! (link to video review)
3 - đ´ Tour de France Drinking Raids - Itâs been a while since I watched the Tour, but I had no idea that back in the day the riders would raid cafes and steal food and drinks during their rides. The video shows riders jumping off bikes and grabbing everything they could before getting back on their bikes and chasing the peloton.
Deeper Dive on Inclusion Safety
Do you know what psychological safety is?
For a while I didnât!
Iâd hear it at work - usually when an employee mentioned that they didnât have psychological safety - but I didnât really know what it was or how to improve it.
Now, years later, having read a couple books on the topic, plus consuming articles, videos, and having conversations with other leaders, I understand psychological safety - and it is a powerful concept!
You may have heard of Googleâs Project Aristotle, where they studied 180 different teams over two years, with the goal of understanding what factors were present in the best teams.
What was the number one factor?
You guessed it. Psychological safety.
The other four were Dependability, Structure and Clarity, Meaning, and Impact. In addition to having psychological safety, good teams get things done on time with high quality, have clear roles, plans, and goals, have a sense of purpose, and make a difference.
That means if you want to optimize the performance of your team, you canât ignore psychological safety.
In fact, donât ignore psychological safety anywhere youâre a part of humans interacting!
Your spouse wants psychological safety. Your kids want it. Your sports team and hobby groups want it, too.
Since psychological safety is such a big topic, weâre not going to cover it all today. Iâll introduce the overall framework, and only deep dive into the first stage - inclusion safety.
What is Psychological Safety?
In Googleâs Project Aristotle they defined psychological safety as âbeing safe to take risks and be vulnerable without fear of being embarrassed or ridiculed.â
Amy Edmondson, credited with doing a lot of the core research on psychological safety, defines it as âa shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.â
And finally, Timothy R. Clark, author of âThe 4 Stages of Psychological Safetyâ took that definition and also broke it down into a framework.
As his book title suggests, he describes four stages of psychological safety, aligned with what people need: 1 - Inclusion Safety - Being included. 2 - Learner Safety - Safe to learn and grow. 3 - Contributor Safety - Safe to contribute. 4 - Challenger Safety - Safe to challenge the status quo.
To be âsafeâ in this context is to be able to do these things without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished.
âWhen psychological safety is high, people take more ownership and release more discretionary effort, resulting in higher-velocity learning and problem solving. When itâs low, people donât muscle through the fear. Instead, they shut down, self-censor, and redirect their energy toward risk management, pain avoidance, and self-preservation.â
Before getting into the detail of the first stage, letâs talk about what psychological safety is not.
By the way, if youâre interested in learning more:
You can hear Tim Clark talk about the four stages here: link.
You can hear Amy Edmondsonâs TED Talk here: link.
What isnât Psychological Safety?
It isnât a lack of accountability. It isnât a lack of discipline. It isnât a lack of consequences.
Iâve found this to be one of the biggest misconceptions about psychological safety! Some people think it means they can do or say whatever they feel like, and if a manager or peer reacts negatively, they believe it violates psychologically safety.
Not true.
One of the key concepts of psychological safety is that youâre increasing intellectual friction and decreasing social friction. There are still consequences for low quality or missing deadlines, but theyâre not arbitrary and capricious. Theyâre clearly stated and consistently upheld.
ââŚpsychological safety does not imply ease or comfort. In contrast, psychological safety is about candor and willingness to engage in productive conflict so as to learn from different points of view.â and âPsychological safety is not an âanything goesâ environment where people are not expected to adhere to high standards or meet deadlines. It is not about becoming âcomfortableâ at work.â
But enough about the overall concept of psychological safety! Letâs dig into inclusion safety specifically.
Inclusion is Graduating from Exclusion
Humans do not like to be excluded. Weâre community animals and we want to belong.
In the wild, humans are not the strongest animals. We donât have sharp claws and teeth. But weâre smart! When we work together we can best any animal. We can survive the winter. We can forage for food and create shelter.
Working alone? Survival drops significantly.
Maybe the wolves just want a hug?
Weâre hard-wired to be part of a group because it used to mean death. Even though the consequences today are typically lower, we feel the same deep dread when weâre excluded from a group. Exclusion is painful!
So the first stage of psychological safety is about being included.
Inclusion safety is about being safe because youâre you. What are the prerequisites to being granted inclusion safety? Being âhuman and harmless.â (Tim Clark)
Thatâs a pretty low bar - weâre all human, and most of us are harmless. So why is inclusion safety not the default? What gets in the way?
What Gets in the Way of Inclusion?
You do.
Well, more specifically, your ego and insecurities. Donât worry - Iâm not singling you out - we all have them. The goal is to become aware of them so we can see where theyâre negatively influencing our behaviors.
âKey concept: Excluding a person is more often the result of personal unmet needs and insecurities than a genuine dislike of the person.â
Instead of granting people inclusion safety because they are âhuman and harmless,â we scrutinize and we judge. We compare. We assess whether the other person is worthy of being in the same group as us.
âWithholding inclusion safety is a sign that weâre engaged in a fight with our own willful blindness. Weâre self-medicating with enchanting tales about our distinctiveness and superiority. If itâs a mild case of snobbery, that may be easy to dismiss. But if itâs a more severe case of narcissistic supremacy, thatâs a bigger problem.â
A common theme here at âThe Catalystâ is working on yourself, and it turns out psychological safety is no different! If you want to include others, you have grant yourself that safety first. You have to love yourself and give yourself grace.
âLearn to love yourself first. People with low self-regard have a hard time being inclusive.â
Changing your relationship with yourself is beyond the scope of a mere newsletter, of course, but I wanted to mention it đ¤Ł
Love yourself.
What would it look like if we more easily granted inclusion safety?
What Inclusion Looks Like
Thereâs a new kid at school nervously looking around the lunchroom. All the other kids are already seated.
Scanning the room, they see an open seat next to some friendly-looking kids.
Lunch tray in hand, they amble over to the open seat and meekly ask, âCan I sit here?â
âŚ
âSure! Whatâs your name?â
At Inclusion High, the new girl is optimistic she'll be welcomed at the lunch table.
Thatâs inclusion safety. And if you changed schools like I did as a kid, you know it doesnât always play out that way!
Inclusion safety is the informal acceptance of a new person into the group. Formal acceptance is when they signed their offer paperwork.
They are not informally accepted until theyâre given a proverbial seat at the table with the rest of the team. Once they are granted informal acceptance, the new person feels like part of the team.
Is that all we have to do to achieve inclusion safety? Make someone feel welcome on their first day?
Nurture Inclusion Every Day
Inclusion safety isnât one and done. It is renewed (or withdrawn) through repeat actions that indicate the level of acceptance.
Imagine a kid who plays on a football team but then gets hurt. In one scenario they become neglected and unwelcome. No longer able to contribute to the team, they are deemed unworthy and are slowly excluded in ways large and small. The coach doesnât bring them into the huddle at practice. The team doesnât invite them out for burgers after the game.
In the second scenario, the opposite happens. Theyâre out there yelling with the team as they close out practice. Theyâre on the sidelines during the game talking to the coaches. Theyâre eating lunch with the team just like they did before.
The contrasting scenarios show how inclusion safety can be nurtured or withdrawn. It highlights that inclusion is an action.
I think itâs really helpful to highlight this for inclusion in a romantic relationship. Being included in a romantic relationship - love - is also an act. To feel love, you have to give love. You have reinforce the relationship through acts of kindness and care.
ââŚinclusion safety is dynamic and perishable. It must be replenished every day. Particularly in marriage, respect must be translated into acts of kindness, service, and sacrifice. Without a consistent investment in gestures of respect, the relationship will wither from neglect.â
At work, how could you nurture inclusion on your team? How can you make people feel welcome and included every day?
If youâre on Zoom a lot like I am, what does it look like when people join the call? Do you welcome people in and say hello, or do you ignore their presence until you have a question. One of those behaviors pushes the sense of inclusion higher, the other begins to drive connection down.
Inclusion Safety is a Spectrum
Not only is inclusion safety not a one time act - itâs also not binary. You donât have all of it or none of it. There are shades of gray in between. Every interaction can move you higher or lower on the scale.
âPsychological safety is a spectrum; itâs not whether you have it, but how much. I use the metaphor of climbing a ladder. Promoting psychological safety requires moving from one rung to the next. We must strive to reach the highest possible level.â
Actions, both large and small, have an effect on the sensation of inclusion safety and can move you up a rung, or down a rung.
As someone with food allergies, I see how this plays out with food.
For example, Iâve been the one sipping water while the team is having pizza. Or, Iâll watch people with more restrictive diets seated with an empty plate while the rest of the team has their meal.
Having three young kids I also notice this on the birthday party circuit. There are kids with allergies who go to a party and they canât have the food or cake. They sit there, head on a swivel, watching everything get passed around, knowing they canât eat.
It breaks my heart!
Itâs hard to feel like part of the crew when you canât eat with the crew.
When itâs my turn to bake, Iâm intentional about food inclusion. You should see how bright the kidsâ faces are when they see they can eat the same thing as everyone else!
Everyone in the crew gets to eat dessert. But why no forks?!
Iâm not unique in considering food allergies; there are plenty of folks that do!
Iâm just highlighting how you can see the spectrum of inclusion safety at work; some actions make people feel more included, some actions make them feel more excluded. Actions have a powerful effect on people in both directions.
Call to Action
Time to get to work!
You can get started immediately with improving acts of psychological safety!
If youâre reading this at work, practice during your next meeting. What could you do to indicate more inclusion safety to meeting attendees? Watch people around the office or virtual office. Can you see anyone who is isolated? Help to bring them in.
If youâre at home, what act could you perform for the people you live with? What could you do to make them feel more welcome and included?
Let me know how it goes! What do you notice when you put this into practice? How do you feel? Do you notice a change in those around you? Is there anything confusing or hard about this? Let me know at heykev@kevinnoble.xyz.
Kevin đ
Thanks for reading! If you loved it, please tell your friends and colleagues to subscribe here: https://kevinnoble.ck.page/â
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