Annaliese McGavin, Senior People Insights Researcher at an Australian tech giant, on crafting collaborative conversations, cultivating psychological safety and providing effective feedback (#4)

Heard of Atlassian? They’re a tech giant who sell products to companies as versatile as NASA, Zoom and Audi, seeking to “unleash the potential of every team.” (1) So who looks after their own team? It’s people like Annaliese, a Senior People Insights Researcher, whose role is to boost employee engagement and develop insights to better support Atlassian’s workforce. She’s also an organisational psychologist, PhD candidate and someone making knowledge from psychology more accessible. We took a deep dive into psychological safety, collaboratively solving problems, providing effective feedback at work and of course, how to change behaviour in an organisational context. Enjoy :) Timestamps: The origins of Annaliese’s interest in psychology (1:26) What psychological safety is and what it leads to (7:10) What makes effective feedback (9:07) The importance of positive reinforcement and embracing vulnerability (13:57) Rapid-fire questions (21:16) The fundamentals of high performing teams (24:52) The value of prioritising reflection (28:47) Embracing collaborative problem solving (33:05) Fostering high engagement in group discussions (38:21) The work and knowledge Nilesh would like in 10 years (43:53)