Opinions expressed by ukbusinessupdates.com contributors are their own.
Think back to a time when you were in a room with a group of people. You had something to share but felt uncomfortable doing so. That discomfort may have been so great that you kept your thoughts to yourself. At that time you did not experience psychological safety.
Psychological safety is a term coined in 1999 by Harvard scholar Amy Edmondson and has gained significant momentum and focus over the past 20 years. When thinking about the concept of psychological safety, it can help to look at it through the lens of a wingsuit. These structures are relatively simple in design, but they allow individuals to safely jump off mountains, cliffs, buildings and helicopters and engage in risky behaviors. Psychological safety in the workplace acts like a professional wingsuit, allowing professionals to take risks because they know they are safe.
What is Psychological Safety?
Many people wonder if psychological safety is simply about being nice or respectful to others in the workplace. Treating people with respect and courtesy is part of a psychologically safe workplace, but these two adjectives don’t cover the full complexity of psychological safety.
Psychological safety is the belief that you and others will not be punished or humiliated for expressing ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. It is an absence of interpersonal fear. In a work environment, psychological safety supports the belief that taking appropriate risks regarding your behavior in a group context is safe. In general, there is trust in the workplace with psychological safety.
Related: Why you should be concerned about psychological safety in the workplace
Nine steps to create psychological safety
A culture of psychological safety does not emerge by itself and must be cultivated through specific action steps.
- Present. The first step to creating psychological safety is being present and involved. Specific behaviors you can implement to support psychological safety include active listening, eye contact, staying away from technology during conversations, and asking follow-up questions about an idea or shared information. In a society that idealizes multitasking and “being busy,” the goal of being present can be challenging, but in doing so, we prioritize connection and psychological safety versus dysfunctional habits.
- To understand. You can then create an understanding toolbox. You create psychological safety by showing that you understand or try to understand what is being said. One strategy for doing this is to paraphrase, “What I heard you say was…” or “I want to make sure your point is clear, so can you explain?” You ask for clarification on what is being shared so that your intent to understand the other person is clear and authentic. Body language such as nodding, leaning forward and appropriate facial expressions show a desire to understand.
- Avoid guilt. When people are hesitant to discuss challenges or failures for fear of retaliation, blame, or judgment, it hinders the optimal functioning of the individual and the team. Instead of asking “what happened and why?” that reduces psychological safety and focuses on the past, a phrase that encourages psychological safety could be “how can we do better next time?”. This type of question focuses on the future. It encourages learning from the situation as a united team.
- Transparency. This means sharing your best practices with your team, either as a leader or as a team member. How you work best. How you like to be recognized. How you like to communicate. This provides the script or profile for others to understand and best interact with you.
- Quit negativity. In general, the goal of psychological safety is to work together as a functional team. Negativity undermines this goal, and even worse, negativity is contagious. When team members engage in gossip, foster patterns of negative remarks or drama, and talk about people behind their backs, it establishes team culture. Others assume this is standard, acceptable behavior for the group and the practices continue and build, destroying psychological safety. At those times, it’s uncomfortable for most of us to deal with the negativity, especially when we’re the only voice trying to stop the behavior. Making a plan in advance helps with this. Just like we did in school when we practiced fire drills to prepare for a potential emergency, having a plan and script of what to do and say in times when negativity undermines psychological safety allows you to effectively respond to the situation in instead of letting it happen. To go.
- Including decision-making. This step encourages all team members to participate in decisions through input, feedback and sharing their thoughts. It features leaders explaining the rationale for final decisions and celebrating all contributions. This includes the contributions that matched the final decision and the contributions that may not have matched but helped consider all perspectives to make the final decision. This encourages individuals to keep sharing ideas regardless of the outcome.
- Welcome Conflict. Conflict seems contrary to a psychologically safe culture, but conflict gets a bad name. With healthy conflict comes the ability to receive and give feedback; especially for leaders this is essential for the optimal functioning of themselves and the team. Healthy conflict allows team members to challenge their leader and each other, opening up the opportunity to consider new or different perspectives. This increases psychological safety.
- Champion your team. Whether in a leadership role or a team member position, supporting and sharing the team’s contributions increases psychological safety. This also means that when a team misses the mark on a goal, individual blame is not laid. Instead, as a unified whole, the team uses the situation to grow knowledge and skills. Instead of focusing on placing blame, the leader and team approach the failure or challenge from a framework of curiosity with the goal of collaborative learning and problem solving.
- Copper connection. Copper is the most efficient electrical conductor. As a leader or team member, by acting in the role of buyer, you can create and foster relationships between team members. Having these connections at work and in our teams facilitates the other steps to create psychological safety.
Related: 7 steps to keep conflict healthy
Why bother to create psychological safety?
Building psychological safety isn’t just a “fun” thing to do. Workplaces that create and promote psychological safety reflect measurable benefits. These cultures have higher employee engagement, which typically results in higher productivity levels. Creativity and innovation are also enhanced in psychologically safe organizations and teams. Ideas flow organically because team members feel safe to express themselves.
Related: Are your employees stressed? You must embrace transparency
Psychological safety promotes the overall well-being of team members and employees because they are mentally healthier and contribute to their physical health. Stress levels are lower than anxiety and depression, resulting in less employee absenteeism. Finally, organizations with higher psychological safety have higher employee morale and retention. Team members are more likely to make positive statements about their organization to people outside the organization.
It comes down to choice. Stick to the way your organization or team currently functions or choose to integrate action steps to create the benefits of a psychologically safe work culture.
