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Building Psychological Safety and Accountability at RES
Building Psychological Safety and Accountability at RES
Helping the UK&I Asset Management Finance team strengthen communication, challenge assumptions and build a more open and accountable team culture.
At a glance
At a glance
1
1 full-day Team Development intervention
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Teams from different Locations - Guildford and Kings Langley
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Focus areas: Psychological safety, communication and accountability
25
People from the UK&I Asset Management Finance team
The challenge
The challenge
The UK&I Asset Management Finance team had experienced significant organisational change over the previous 18 months. The team was working across Guildford and Kings Langley, with new colleagues joining and different working practices emerging.
Alongside this, there were challenges around communication, performance and open conversation. Some important issues were not being discussed directly, assumptions were influencing relationships, and there was a need to strengthen how colleagues worked together across locations.
The intervention was designed to create space for honest conversation, strengthen peer relationships and help the team agree practical actions that could improve how they worked together.
What we did
What we did
Challenge assumptions
Challenge assumptions
The team explored how assumptions influence the way we think, feel and behave towards others, and how inaccurate assumptions can affect relationships and communication.
Explore psychological safety
Explore psychological safety
The team mapped where they felt they were across the Apathy, Comfort, Learning and Anxiety zones, creating a shared conversation about what would help more people operate in the Learning Zone.
Build accountability
Build accountability
Using the Accountability Ladder, individuals explored the difference between victim and accountable behaviours and identified what they could do differently themselves.
Turning conversation into action
Turning conversation into action
The day moved beyond discussion into practical behavioural commitments. Through breakout groups and facilitated plenary conversations, the team identified what they needed to start, stop and continue doing to improve relationships, communication and performance.
START
START
More direct conversations
Asking for and giving feedback
Picking up the phone rather than relying on email
Asking for help sooner
Checking in with colleagues
Making better use of individual strengths
STOP
STOP
Making assumptions
Staying silent when conversations are needed
Doubting themselves
Allowing office or location barriers to affect relationships
Feeling anxious about making mistakes
CONTINUE
CONTINUE
Owning mistakes
Regular team catch-ups
Speaking up
Connecting across locations
Giving constructive feedback
Reinforcing that there is no such thing as a silly question
The impact
The impact
As the day progressed, colleagues visibly grew in confidence and conversations began to flow more naturally.
The intervention created space for the team to better understand one another, challenge assumptions and have conversations around psychological safety, accountability and performance that had previously been difficult to surface.
The team left with a clear set of behavioural commitments focused on stronger communication, greater openness, individual accountability and better connection across locations.
Further follow-up was recommended to help embed the learning over time, although this did not progress at the time due to budget constraints.
The next stage
The next stage
Following the wider team intervention, Vector worked with the RES Finance leadership team using Insights Discovery to deepen self-awareness, improve communication and strengthen team dynamics.
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