Crispy Consulting

Foster Psychological Safety

How can we make sure people speak their minds, stick their necks out, bring in ideas, questions or concerns? The answer lies in psychological questions – or the lack thereof.

We all have been in that situation, where we had an idea, question or concern but didn’t feel comfortable with raising it, for fear of being embarrassed, punished, the odd one out or other negative reactions. But that leaves everyone worse off: maybe your concern was valid and would have prevented a mistake later on. Or your concern turned out to be unwarranted, but now you can relax and know it is taken care of.

A psychologically safe environment is one where we feel safe taking interpersonal risks. This makes for a more comfortable and less fearful place to work at (nice for the individuals). It reduces errors, because people speak up – and increases creativity, because people are more comfortable voicing ideas (nice for the organisation). We would like to help you explore how you can turn your organisation into a psychologically safe working environment.

Build Self-Organized Teams

Why do you want to try self-management?
Maybe it helps your organisation working towards its purpose, or it deals better with complexity, or allows for faster and better decisions, or fits closer to your values, gives people the opportunity and means to make a difference etc. Whatever it is, we would like to accompany you on your journey.

In most organisations, good management is supposed to work like a well-oiled machine. And leaders have to design that machine and try to prevent any hiccups.
This leads to a lot of time and effort invested into command & predict & control, even for risks that aren’t existential.

The problem with this is that reality rarely matches our plans – a new customer request comes in, covid regulations change again, the machine breaks and we have to replace it, a conflict in the team arises etc. No leader can plan for all of these much less react optimally to all of these in the moment.
To deal with this, systems & teams need to become self-correcting and adaptive.

But this is a big departure from how we understand and think about our organisations and systems. How do we work without power hierarchy? How are decisions made? Isn’t this just pure anarchy?
We would love to help and accompany you on a journey to taking the next step in organisational evolution.

Create Motivating Structures

When you design your organisation, do you consider its impact on motivation? Let’s take a look at your organisation’s structures and system, how they might contribute to or harm motivation – and how to improve on that.

We all know the line “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”. This line offers a deep insight: people will adapt to and play according to the system and rules around them.
Based on this insight, what should we look at when we see a lack of motivation? The player or the game?
Usually we only look at the player (i.e. the team member) or maybe the coach (i.e. the leader). Yet rarely do we question the game and the associated rules.

i.e. How does your performance management look like? Maybe it creates emotional pressure, necessitates impossible choices for those who do the assessment and lead to annual performance reviews no one looks forward to? How is compensation structured and decided?

We would like to help you look at your structures and systems (i.e. game and rules) and how they help or hurt the motivation of your organisation, based on the newest empirical research and theories.

Uncover Purpose

What is your organisation’s purpose? Could your team members tell you if you asked them? Is the purpose relevant or a poster on the wall? We would like to help you find yours and turn it into the core of your organisation.

A purpose driven organisation gives meaning, guidance and fulfils a basic human desire to contribute to something larger than ourselves. But in reality it is often superseded entirely by the pressure for growth, profit, revenue, market share and staying ahead of competitors. Few of us think that this is good, but most of us think it is unavoidable and a fact of life. After all, without money the purpose of our organisation doesn’t really matter.

But think of it this way: No one would dispute that we need air to live. But no one lives just in order to breathe. Organisations are the same: you need money to work towards your purpose, but just making money (i.e. breathing) isn’t and shouldn’t be enough. We would like to help you and your organisation explore your purpose and how to turn a purely profit-driven company into a purpose-driven company.

Effective Decision Making

How do you take decisions in your company? Does the leader decide? That may lead to unpopular or rash decisions. Or by consensus? That may not lead to any decision, ever. Effective decision making processes are a key to creating effective organisations.

The two decision models we are most familiar with are either that one person calls the shots or that we all agree on how to move forward.We know that neither of these two are ideal. One person calling the shots can lead to frustration but at least we are getting things done.Everyone agreeing (consensus) gives everyone a voice but is just so frustratingly slow most of the time. But there are plenty of alternatives to choose from when we want to take decisions, the key lies in finding those processes that work for your context. Together we can look at your organisation, see which decisions usually lead to tensions, frustrations or aren’t made at all, and how we can improve on the process that lies behind them.

Defining Culture and Values

How do we build a culture that is strong, motivating, inclusive and gives us a sense of belonging? Lacking a systematic understanding of culture, this can seem like an elusive undertaking full of guesswork.

Organisational cultures emerge whether we plan to or not. Especially at the start of a company, culture is something that just happens and is fueled by the fast-paced, intense work with a small group of like-minded people working towards a common purpose. Often, this early culture can get lost as a company grows, more and more people come in that did not take part in the “early days” and suddenly the culture is different, less cohesive, less distinct. But how do we go about shaping culture with intent? How can we build an organisation that is vibrant, inclusive, maybe even a bit weird, but definitely “you”? Using up-to-date research, best practices and experience we would love to help you embark on your journey towards a stronger culture.