Recipe for a successful team

After graduation, I have been in the workforce for over 5 years. Since then, I have been developing my career on various levels; technical and non-technical related. I spent some years working in a public service agency, where I worked with a local team in managing software projects.

I have since moved on to an MNC, with its headquarters in the USA, working with a diverse team comprising of members from the USA, Beijing, and Singapore. At this company, I was on the ground, sort of, working on the nitty gritty - research and development work, instead of a high-level project management role.

Every now and then, I'd like to reflect on What it takes to be a successful team. Surely, by now you would have known that fellow tech company, Google, is one of the world's leading companies. In that aspect, they produces some of the most successful products and most importantly, successful teams.

Recently, I came across an article by Julia Rozovsky, an analyst from Google, People Operations. After reading it, I could not agree more on the contents of it. In her short post (link below), she described how great team communication and interaction is the key to a successful team. 

"Is this applicable for my team? How can I apply the learning points from Google effectively?" 

These are some questions coming into my mind while reading it. I recommend all, especially those who are in people management or development role, to read it. 

Article here: Five keys to a successful team

In my opinion, some key points (excerpt from the article):

1. Psychological safety ranks as the most important element in a running a team. It explains how taking a risk seems simple, yet it's difficult at the same time, due to multiple reasons. A common example; you opt for continuing without clarifying anything, in order to avoid being perceived as someone who is unaware?
2. Self-protection occurs naturally in the workplace, yet it is bad for effective teamwork.
3. The safer team members feel with one another, the more likely they are to admit mistakes and to take on new roles. 
4. Individuals on teams with higher psychological safety are less likely to leave the company, they’re more likely to harness the power of diverse ideas from their teammates, they bring in more revenue, and they’re rated as effective twice as often by executives.

So the important question now is:

How do we foster high Psychological Safety in the team?