Psychological Safety
Creating Psychological Safety at Work
Your guide to making ‘work’ a safe place to be
The best question for testing an organization’s psychological safety is, “WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PEOPLE MAKE MISTAKES?”
As Amy Edmondson says, the teams and organizations in which people believe that their voices are heard, outperform their counterparts.
When people believe they can speak up at work, the learning, innovation and performance of their organizations are greater. The lack of psychological safety can make us fear not only our bosses but also our peers.
In Amy’s Book, The Fearless Organisation, she recommends the below three measures which I have elaborated on with my thoughts,
- Setting the stage
Shift the blame from the person to the problem. The shared goal isn’t someone’s incompetence, but the collective competence of a team. Consider this as an opportunity to re-frame and re-contract the team goals. Our experiences and beliefs affect our perception of the situation more than our understanding of the current reality.
- Inviting participation
A generic message does appear specifically to anyone. When solving problems, generic matters lose engagement, specificity brings people together. To invite participation, ask specific and relevant questions. Make sure your intentions and words match up. Be curious to unearth the situation, but never be judgmental to tag a person to the issue.
- Responding productively
When people respond, listen with an open mind, keeping your biases, and judgment outside the door. Imagine when you’ve given people an opportunity to open up and then immediately respond with strong emotion, the psychological safety evaporates. A productive response is always appreciative, and respectful, and offers a path forward.
Usually, in situations of incidents or critical failures, teams with no psychological safety fight like blind rats running here and there, blaming everyone their way. But the goal is not to fight or compete on who was right or wrong, the goal is to identify the contributing factors to prevent the system from future failures.
Psychological safety isn’t about always being nice. It is about giving candid feedback, openly admitting mistakes and learning from each other. It is a belief that expressing one’s honest self won’t get one punished or discriminated against.
💭 Thoughts for reflection:
💬What steps do you take to create psychological safety in your team/organization?
💬When you think of psychological fear/intimidation, who is the first person that comes to your mind? And Why?
💬What behaviours in your team detract from safety?
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