| | MARCH - 2023MANAGEHRMAGAZINE.COM81. Leave titles and egos at the doorPeter Skillman, a veteran of creative product design and engineering, delivered a 2006 TED talk where he introduced a marshmallow design challenge.In his TED talk, he describes how over several months, he challenged students across different age groups across the world to build the tallest possible standing out of twenty pieces of uncooked spaghetti one yard of transparent tape one yard of string one standard-size marshmallow The only rule was that the marshmallow had to be at the top of the standing structure. Interestingly, among the worst structures built were those constructed by business school students, who, on average, built not only the shortest structures but the least visually appealing and least stable structures. Surprisingly, the group that produced the highest-standing structures with the more robust and visually diverse, and creative designs were, in fact, kindergarten students. On average, the kindergarteners built structures that averaged 26 inches tall, whilst the business school students built structures that averaged 10 inches or less.Intrigued to understand this unexpected phenomenon, Skillman observed and analysed the behaviours and social interactions among the groups. What he found was that the business school students did a lot more planning and strategising, jockeying for power to understand who was in charge and trying to figure out if it was okay to challenge ideas. The kindergartners, on the other hand, did not know or care who was in charge; happy to take risks, they quickly spotted when something wasn't working, made adjustments whenever necessary, and offered each other help. Amy Edmondson, who is the Novartis professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, explains psychological safety as "a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes." 5WAYS LEADERS CAN BUILD A PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE CULTUREBy Nelson Derry, Head of Culture, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Aesop In MyOpinionNelson Derry
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