Five Actionable Ways to Create More Psychological Safety at Work

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“The biggest problem is we don’t take risks. I want to assure you: It’s safe to take risks! So go out there, make mistakes, fail fast, learn a lot, and challenge the status quo.”

Cue thunderous applause.

Sounds great, right? The problem is that’s just one person standing on a stage waving their hands and pretending changing a culture is automatic, like flipping a switch.

The reality is you have to create building blocks.??

On Tuesday’s livestream, I shared how to lay a foundation for psychological safety so people feel comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and challenging the status quo.

But first:?

A quick primer on psychological safety (and why it’s important)

In 1999, Amy Edmonson, a professor at Harvard Business School, defined psychological safety as the absence of interpersonal fear.

On a team, that fear is replaced by trust. People are allowed to experiment without judgment, to voice opinions without being shamed, to fail without being labeled a failure.?

If you want your team to perform well, you have to ensure they come up with new ideas, challenge each other, and ask for help — without feeling insecure or embarrassed.

PA Consulting recently published a study that showed the people who in the highest quartile of psychological safety —had a 47% higher well-being score than the lowest quartile of psychological safety. That’s key because one element of well-being is psychological safety, and psychologically safe explained 38% of team performance scores. Teams that feel are more likely to innovate, take risks, and perform.

How can you tell if your team feels psychologically safe? When they feel like they belong, they can grow, they can make an impact, and they can challenge the way things are done.

The four stages of psychological safety

The four stages of psychological safety tap into some of our most basic needs as humans, and we have to pass through each stage before we can feel safe at work. Here’s what that looks like:

1. Inclusion. Do people feel like they belong? Like they’re part of the group? When people feel seen, known, and fully appreciated, they have a sense of safety.?
2. The ability to learn. Can people ask questions? If they feel safe and know there are no dumb questions, they feel comfortable experimenting and making mistakes —?without fear of looking stupid or being judged.
3. Contribution. In this stage, people are given the freedom to contribute in the unique ways only they can. They feel safe sharing new ideas and creating an impact.?
4. Challenger. This is the highest stage of psychological safety because people go up against the status quo. They’re comfortable saying, “There’s got to be a better way to do this.”?

As a leader trying to create disruptive, exponential changes, you need challengers. But building your team up to that stage of psychological safety doesn’t happen overnight.?

So how do you create a culture of psychological safety?

Five concrete actions that build psychological safety

The only way your team will stray outside their comfort zone and make big, audacious change happen is if they feel psychologically safe. Here’s how you can create psychological safety so your team is ready and willing to drive disruption:

1. Develop self-awareness of your emotions and fears. As a leader, you have to understand your biases and triggers if you hope to accept and include people who are different from you and challenge how you see the world. Work on becoming aware of those emotions, remove judgment, and remember that you don’t have to accept or agree. But you do have to create space for people’s ideas.
2. Genuinely care about your team. When you recognize and appreciate people for their whole selves (not just the work they produce and the outcomes they create), they feel accepted and included. I encourage you to check in with your team on a regular basis. Ask if they feel listened to, if they feel like they can bring their whole selves to work, if they feel empowered to make decisions.?
3. Set clear expectations and goals. When is it okay to introduce new ideas or challenge an accepted way of doing things? And when is it not? This is a fine line because we want people to feel safe surfacing ideas, but there’s a time and a place to do that. Your job is to clearly define what’s allowed and what’s not, and let your team know when it’s time to move forward. Clarity creates safety.
4. Create multiple ways to surface ideas. Let people submit ideas, feedback, or criticism by email, via collaboration tools, during in-person or one-on-one meetings. Give them the option to remain anonymous, too. I love kicking off every team meeting by sharing a risk I’ve taken and asking people to do the same. When teams do this, psychological safety levels go up by 6%. And structure and clarity ratings increase by 10%.?
5. Encourage disagreement. This one’s tough! So many psychological safety discussions stop at the initial idea. But what do you do with that idea? Especially if you don’t agree with it? Leaders have to foster discussion but also say, “Okay, I’ve heard all the arguments. I think we should go this way.” The ability to disagree and then commit to an idea (even if it’s not yours and you fundamentally disagree with it) is the highest level of psychological safety and well-being inside an organization — and drives the highest level of team performance.

When people feel safe, they take on more responsibilities, admit their mistakes and shortcomings, learn new things, and speak up. None of that will happen until they feel safe and confident. But if you can successfully create a psychologically safe culture, you’ll benefit from an environment bursting with innovation and disruption.?

Psychological safety isn’t created overnight, and neither is cultural change. But fundamental shifts can happen very quickly. That’s what I’ll be talking about next week: changing the culture at large, established organizations when that culture’s been in place for decades (or centuries). Join me on Tuesday, September 27 at 9 am PT to find out how!

Your Turn

How do you create psychological safety in your organization? I’d love to hear what’s working and what’s not! Please share your experience in the comments.