Psychological safety at work
Psychological safety has emerged as an essential component of effective cooperation. It has never been more crucial to understand how to enhance it in the workplace, as cooperation is the core function of every team.
Organizations benefit from a variety of thinking, and groups of individuals with different life experiences are better equipped to spot issues and give innovative solutions than groups with similar life experiences.
Therefore, fostering psychological safety at work amongst diverse groups of people is necessary to achieve better performance, and thus has become a key focus area for leaders and managers of teams.
So what is psychological safety, how can you measure it, and what can you do to create psychological safety at work?
What is psychological safety?
Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor, coined the phrase psychological safety in a 1999 journal article exploring its relationship to team learning and performance. Establishing an environment of psychological safety encourages individuals to speak out and express their ideas, and she defines it as “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”
It is the conviction that speaking out with ideas, questions, concerns, or errors will not result in punishment or humiliation. For many people it is easy to identify a time in their life when they have lacked psychological safety. Unfortunately, moments when we feel we are being “called out” or publicly shamed tend to stay with us.
Why does psychological safety matter?
Psychological safety matters at work because it has significant business implications. When employees are afraid to speak openly and honestly, the organization is poorly equipped to adapt, and can continue down unproductive and unprofitable paths.
When employees don’t feel safe, engaged and dedicated to their team, the organization misses out on the potential to fully utilize all of its resources. Psychological safety is just as important to an effective team as physical safety and performance objectives.
Workplace psychological safety is critical since it:
Enhances employee wellbeing. Employees that feel psychologically safe are better able to perform at their best and avoid stresses that prevent them from doing so.
Encourages innovation and creativeness. Team members must feel comfortable expressing themselves in order for creativity and ideas to flow naturally. Consider how many brilliant ideas were never shared because a team member was afraid to speak up.
Results in higher employee engagement. It is easier for team members to participate when they feel comfortable at work. This might be in a team meeting, while they're addressing problems, working on projects, or interacting with customers and peers.
Encourages a diverse environment in the workplace. Making all team members feel involved is more crucial than ever. Diverse teams are embraced in safe environments.
Decreases employee turnover. Employees who feel safe, secure and valued at work have been shown to be less likely to quit their jobs.
Improves team performance. Teams function best when they have highly engaged members who are not afraid to let their ideas be known, and when team members feel safe challenging each other. Teams perform when there is an inclusive workplace atmosphere and creativity and problem solving are unleashed.
The 4 stages of psychological safety
Employees must pass through the following four phases in order to feel comfortable speaking out and making important contributions, according to Dr. Timothy Clark, author of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation, before they feel free to make important contributions and question the status quo.
Stage 1 - Inclusion safety: Inclusion safety meets the fundamental human urge to connect and belong. You feel secure to be yourself at this time, and you are welcomed for who you are, including your unique qualities and distinguishing features.
Stage 2 - Learner safety meets the urge to learn and grow at the second stage. At this point, you are comfortable exchanging information in the learning process by asking questions, providing and receiving feedback, trying, and making errors.
Stage 3 - Contributor safety: You are confident in your ability to contribute meaningfully using your talents and abilities.
Stage 4 - Challenger safety: When you believe there is a chance to change or improve, you feel confident speaking up and challenging the status quo.
How do you measure psychological safety?
Amy Edmondson discovered that the amount of psychological safety differed significantly between teams, even within the same firm. She created a 7-question survey to assess the psychological safety of a team. Team members answer these questions anonymously on a scale of 1 to 7. The 7 questions are below:
If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you.
Members of this team can bring up problems and tough issues.
People on this team sometimes reject others for being different.
It is safe to take a risk on this team.
It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.
Team insights tool
Loumee has also developed a methodology for assessing psychological safety at work via its Playing it Safe program.
This involves a multi-stage process with team members asked to play a challenging team game, and then using the Team Insights Tool, reflect on their individual and team performance, relating that back to the workplace.
The Team Insights Tool gives leaders and managers a way to better understand psychological safety in their team, one of the key levers of team performance.
What are the benefits of psychological safety?
Working in a psychologically safe environment has personal and organizational benefits. According to 2020 research, when individuals feel psychologically safe in the workplace, they are more likely to:
Speak up more frequently and publicly
Communicate their thoughts and ideas to their bosses
Feed their ideas into decision-making in their teams
As a result, experiencing and responding in this manner promotes work engagement. Work engagement is a mental state that causes you to feel more energized, devoted, and immersed in your work. According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2017, only 33% of U.S. employees are engaged at work.
Other advantages of psychological safety include:
Improved problem-solving abilities
Behaviors that are inclusive
Increased output
Increase team engagement
Improved communal well-being
Less likely to make dangerous mistakes
Increased sense of belonging
Civilizations that are more welcoming and diverse
How to create psychological safety at work
1. Make psychological safety a team priority.
If you’re a leading, discuss the significance of fostering psychological safety at work and how it relates to larger goals of generating better organizational creativity, team involvement, and a sense of inclusiveness.
Model the behaviors you wish to see and set the tone in the workplace by demonstrating empathy.
2. Facilitate ways to speak up.
Honor honesty and truth-telling, as well as real inquiry. When someone is brave enough to say something that challenges the status quo, be open-minded, sympathetic, and understanding. Teams with the bravery to speak the truth are more likely to be successful.
3. Establish guidelines for dealing with failure.
Experimentation and acceptable risk-taking should not be punished. Encourage learning from failure and disappointment, and make sure lessons are learned together, publicly. Instead of hindering innovation, this will foster it.
4. Make room for fresh ideas.
When questioning a concept, place the issue within the context of overall support. Consider if you simply want well-proven ideas or whether you're prepared to embrace very innovative, out-of-the-box concepts that aren't yet well-formulated. Learn how to accept fresh ideas in order to cultivate more inventive attitudes on your team.
5. Accept constructive conflict.
Encourage good discourse and seek to settle disagreements in a productive manner. Leaders may pave the way for gradual transformation by defining team standards for psychological safety elements.
6. Practice and reflect, through team-based games.
Playing team-based games can help increase psychological safety though behaviour fostering, skills practice, and reflection. Facilitate team games that promote learning, collaboration, encouragement, and creativity, and allow your team a chance to reflect on their own actions and contributions to the team, as well as reflect on other team member’s behavior.
If you’re looking for a team program to assess and practice psychological safety, contact us.