For decades, Toyota became a global benchmark in quality, efficiency and continuous improvement.
Many people attributed that success to the processes, the technology or the discipline with which the company organized its factories.
However, one of Toyota’s most striking practices had very little to do with machines.
Anyone working on a production line could stop it completely if they spotted a problem. It didn’t matter whether they’d been with the company for twenty years or had joined just a few days earlier.
If they observed an error, a risk or a situation that could affect the quality of the product, they had permission to intervene.
The tool they used was a cord known as Andon. Pulling it triggered a signal that alerted the team.
And if the problem couldn’t be solved quickly, production stopped.
The scene is striking even today. A single person had the ability to stop a production line that moved millions of euros.
For many organizations that seemed like a hard idea to understand.
Why give so much responsibility to someone so close to the base of the structure?
Toyota’s answer was simple.
Because that person was the one seeing the problem.
Over time, the company discovered that the real value of that cord wasn’t in stopping production, but in everything that happened before anyone decided to use it.
Because any company can install a cord. The hard part is building an environment where people feel safe to point out a mistake while it can still be solved.
For years, Toyota worked so that detecting a problem wasn’t perceived as a threat, but as a contribution to the whole team’s work.
The conversation didn’t revolve around who had made the mistake. It revolved around what the organization could learn to prevent it from happening again.
And that difference ended up having a much deeper impact than it seemed at first glance.
When people feel they can speak up, problems appear sooner and organizations have more chances to learn, improve and grow.
This story isn’t really about a cord, but about something much harder to build within an organization.
The sense of safety a person needs to say what they think when they sense something is wrong.
Here appears one of the most relevant issues for any HR professional.
Many organizations claim they want to listen to their teams. However, listening doesn’t depend solely on opening communication channels.
It depends on people feeling they can use them.
Because there’s an important difference between being able to speak and feeling safe to do so.
The first depends on the processes.
The second depends on the culture.
When people feel that a different opinion may have negative consequences, information starts to stay inside the teams.
And when that happens, problems rarely disappear. They simply stop being visible.
Toyota understood long ago that learning doesn’t depend solely on people’s ability to detect errors.
It also depends on there being an environment where those errors can be pointed out without fear.
That’s why psychological safety has become one of the variables receiving the most attention within organizations.
Because it directly influences collaboration, learning and teams’ ability to adapt to increasingly complex environments.
This story is usually explained as an example of quality or continuous improvement.
However, perhaps one of its most relevant lessons has to do with people.
Because talent doesn’t always stop contributing due to a lack of ability.
It often stops contributing because it doesn’t find an environment where it can express itself safely.
Psychological safety doesn’t appear because a company includes it in a manual or turns it into a corporate value. It appears in the way people relate, communicate and manage complex situations every day.
That’s why it’s so hard to build.
Because it doesn’t depend solely on processes or structures. It also depends on the internal state from which people take part within teams.
That’s precisely where Humántica® is born.
An approach that brings into training a dimension that for years received less attention within talent development.
The triad of body, mind and emotion from which people activate their talent.
— Berta
P.S.: Do you think people really feel safe to express what they think within organizations?
