Creating Psychological Safety in Training Through Curiosity

I was one of the participants in a learning session. “There is not any stupid answer in a training session. There are only stupid questions,” said the trainer. Since then, I was afraid of asking the trainer any questions. When other participants asked questions, often the trainer judged the participants, saying “The way you think is wrong.” We as participants did not feel safe to express our questions or ideas in the training room.

Psychological safety is a work environment where employees feel safe to express their questions, concerns, ideas and mistakes. It is the key aspect of high-performing teams. As learning and development (L&D) professionals, it is crucial for us to build psychological safety when facilitating learning sessions. This way, participants can be engaged in learning sessions and bring out their best ideas to add value to their organizations.

We can use the power of curiosity to foster psychological safety in our training programs. The key point is to avoid judging participants and instead to show curiosity by asking questions.

Here are seven question types, mentioned in the book “Creating Psychological Safety at Work,” that can help us build psychological safety while facilitating learning sessions.

Question Type 1: Good-Intention Questions

Let’s take a look at two examples.

Example 1: “Do you think you are good enough to make this presentation?”

Example 2: “What do you need to be able to make a great presentation?”

The first example instils doubt. The second one demonstrates good intention and can help create psychological safety in a learning session.

Question Type 2: Open-Ended Questions

Based on my experience around the globe facilitating learning sessions in English, German, Turkish and Spanish, asking good questions is an important area of improvement for many business professionals. Closed-ended questions can be answered with a simple yes or no. Open-ended questions, on the other hand, start with how, when, who, why, what or where. Open-ended questions allow space for participants to share, elaborate on their thinking and give us, training facilitators, an opportunity to better understand others’ viewpoints. Without comprehending others’ ideas, we can’t build psychological safety.

Question Type 3: Advice Questions

There can be situations where we ask learners questions to solicit their ideas. However, they might not have an answer. In that case, we can guide them with our advice questions. “How can the idea of visiting customers face to face help you?” is one example where we offer advice within the question.

We can use the power of curiosity to foster psychological safety in our training programs.

Question Type 4: Improvement Questions

It is essential to hold back judgement and demonstrate curiosity instead. For example, sometimes, a training facilitator might say to a learner, “This isn’t good enough. You didn’t explain that well.” This is judgement speaking. A better alternative would be to ask an improvement question, “Can you explain it one more time including the details of the project?” and foster to psychological safety.

Question Type 5: Clarifying Questions

When we don’t fully understand others’ viewpoints, we may jump to conclusions. Doing so does not foster psychological safety. Early in my career, I was more eager to reach conclusions quickly. Over time, however, I have become more aware of the usefulness of asking clarifying questions such as, “What do you mean by that?” Such questions can help us better understand others.

Question Type 6: Empathy Questions

?Empathy questions can be directed toward uncovering the feelings of others, such as with, “How do you feel?” In addition, empathy questions can encourage others to consider issues from the perspective of other people, for instance, “How do you think your colleagues will perceive this?”

Question Type 7: Specifying Questions

In Question Type 5, we ask clarifying questions to improve understanding. In Question Type 7, we already understand the situation or challenge well, and the purpose of our questions is to make the application of an idea more concrete.

For instance, if we understand that the issue is related to selling products and/or services for a retailer, a specifying question might be, “When do you intend to start selling the products and/or services?”

Final Thoughts

Innately, we as human beings tend to judge others, so avoiding judgement and showing curiosity is easier said than done. When we are more intentional in asking questions, we can demonstrate curiosity and boost psychological safety while facilitating learning sessions.

Stefaan Van Hooydonk, founder of the Global Curiosity Institute, once said, “Curiosity is a muscle, just like any muscle in the physical body. The more we use it, the bigger and stronger it gets.” I am curious: Which of the above question types resonated most with you? Also, when and in which situation will you use them?

* This article originally appeared on TrainingIndustry.com magazine and is published on LinkedIn with express permission. Here is the link to the original article.

Mehmet Baha is founder of Solution Folder, where he helps organizations improve their work culture. He is the author of the books “Creating Psychological Safety at Work” and “Playbook for Engaged Employees.”