How to create Psychological Safety at work
David Green ????
Co-Author of Excellence in People Analytics | People Analytics leader | Director, Insight222 & myHRfuture.com | Conference speaker | Host, Digital HR Leaders Podcast
Inclusion happens when the diverse workforces that we take care to assemble actually are diversely represented in the important decisions, the important roles in the company.
I can’t think of a better way of starting the series of Summer Special episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast then by taking a closer examination at the concept of 'Psychological Safety'.
“In a workplace, psychological safety is the belief that the environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking. People feel able to speak up when needed — with relevant ideas, questions, or concerns — without being shut down in a gratuitous way. Psychological safety is present when colleagues trust and respect each other and feel able, even obligated, to be candid.”
Those are the words of Amy Edmondson, my guest on this edition of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast.
Amy is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, author of The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, and is currently ranked #3 on the prestigious Thinkers 50 list.
Amy’s work on psychological safety famously formed the bedrock of Google’s Project Aristotle study into what makes effective teams.
You can listen by clicking on the image below or by visiting the podcast website here.
In our conversation, Amy and I discuss:
- The definition of psychological safety – what it is and what it isn’t
- The role of leaders and HR in creating psychological safety: "It starts with 'setting the stage' But it is also about being proactive and inviting voice."
- Why leaders have to own their vulnerability: "As leaders if you talk about your mistakes, it makes it safe for others to do likewise."
- The organisational benefits of psychological safety "innovation, creativity, safety, inclusion..."
- How to create psychological safety in virtual teams
- The relationship between psychological safety and transparency: "Transparency is what is enabled by psychological safety"
- Examples of organisations who have created and embedded psychological safety and the subsequent benefits they have enjoyed
This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in the role culture, leadership and trust play in driving innovation and growth – so business leaders, CHROs, Chief Learning Officers and anyone in a People Analytics, HR Business Partner or Talent Acquisition role.
Psychological safety needs to be paired with a motivation to really do great work.
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my discussion with Amy, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: How to create psychological safety at work
WATCH THE VIDEOS
As well as the podcast, there will be a couple of videos available on the myHRfuture YouTube channel highlighting two of the topics Amy and I covered in our conversation. In the first video, Amy explains how to create psychological safety at work.
GET INVOLVED
If you enjoyed listening to this week's podcast episode, I'd be grateful if you could take the following steps:
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THANK YOU
A huge thank you to Amy for such an enlightening and enjoyable conversation and for sharing her time and knowledge. You can connect with Amy on LinkedIn, follow Amy on Twitter @AmyCEdmondson, take the Fearless Organization scan, Amy refers to in our discussion and read more about her research at Amy's faculty page on the Harvard Business School site.
You might also want to read the following articles penned by Amy:
How Fearless Organizations Succeed
5 Tips for Communicating with Employees During a Crisis (co-authored with Brooks Holtom and David Niu)
When Employees Are Open With Each Other, But Not Management
Don’t Hide Bad News in Times of Crisis
What Good Leadership Looks Like During This Pandemic (co-authored with Michaela Kerrissey)
Cross-Silo Leadership (Co-authored with Tiziana Casciaro and Sujin Jang)
Thanks also to Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa, Caroline Styr and the myHRfuture team for creating the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.
CATCH UP ON THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST
If you haven't listened to all of the episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below.
- EP 40: David Green - How can People Analytics drive business value?
- EP 39: Jeremy Shapiro - How People Analytics has progressed in the last ten years
- EP 38: Heather McGowan - How Covid-19 is accelerating the Future of Work
- EP 37: Thomas Rasmussen - How National Australia Bank has scaled People Analytics
- EP 36: Ravin Jesuthasan - Six imperatives for HR in the Future of Work
- BONUS EPISODE: Amit Mohindra & Dawn Klinghoffer - What is the future of People Analytics?
- EP 35: Peter Hinssen - What is the role of HR in driving and enabling innovation?
- EP 34: Bruce Daisley - What do business leaders want from HR?
- EP 33: Dirk Jonker - Why People Analytics needs to behave like a start-up
- EP 32: Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic - The role of storytelling in People Analytics and Data Visualisation
- EP 31: Piyush Mathur - How Johnson & Johnson uses People Analytics to drive business outcomes
- BONUS EPISODE - Heather Whiteman, RJ Milnor & Ian Bailie (Live at PAFOW) - How to develop the HR skills of the future
- EP 30: Katy Gray - How Arup uses reward data to drive behavioural change
- EP 29: Uri Ort - What is the future of talent assessment?
- EP 28: Zara Nanu - The role of People Analytics in Gender Pay Analysis
- EP 27: Julia Shaw - How can technology reduce bias in the workplace
- EP 26: Stela Lupushor - How HR can be a Catalyst for Change
- BONUS EPISODE: Volker Jacobs - How to scale Employee Experience
- EP 25: Julie Digby - How HR Drives Transformation and Org Design at Mars
- EP 24: RJ Milnor - How McKesson uses ONA to identify what drives high performance in sales
- EP 23: Rupert Morrison - Rethinking Workforce Planning & Organisation Design
- EP 22: Dawn Klinghoffer - The Evolution of People Analytics at Microsoft
- EP 21: John Boudreau - Reinventing Jobs: The Future of Work and it's impact on HR
- EP 20: Tanuj Kapilashrami - How Standard Chartered designed an exceptional Employee Experience
- EP 19: Anna Tavis: What is Agile HR and how are companies adopting it?
- EP 18: Sarah Johnson: How to use employee surveys to create strategic value
- EP 17: Leena Nair - How HR drives business value at Unilever
- EP 16: Keith McNulty - HR 3.0: more data driven, more agile and more business focused
- EP 15: Jason Corsello - The Shift From HR Tech to Work Tech
- EP 14: Jill Larsen - How does the CHRO successfully partner with the CEO
- EP 13: Frida Polli - How AI and Behavioural Science can reduce bias in recruiting
- EP 12: Ian O'Keefe - The Workforce Analytics journey at JP Morgan Chase
- EP 11: Dave Ulrich - The role of HR in the Digital Age
- EP 10: Jordan Pettman - How Nestlé uses People Analytics to measure Gender Pay Gap and Equity
- EP 9: Catalina Schveninger - The Evolution of Corporate Learning at Vodafone
- EP 8: Richard Collins - How is Automation, AI and Analytics changing recruiting?
- EP 7: Katarina Berg - Spotify's CHRO on Leading HR in a digital world
- EP 6: Nick Holley - How HR can become more business relevant
- EP 5: Eden Britt - How to build a People Analytics team in a global organisation | The People Analytics journey at HSBC
- EP 4: Yvette Cameron - How Blockchain will disrupt the Future of Work and HR Technology
- EP 3: Didier Elzinga - How to Create a Culture First Company
- EP 2: Edward Houghton - The Head of Research at the CIPD on Driving Business Performance with People Data
- EP 1: Sharon Doherty - How to transform HR to be more digital and building a culture of diversity
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys. David also hosts the Digital HR Leaders Podcast on myHRfuture.
Founder & CEO, Group 8 Security Solutions Inc. DBA Machine Learning Intelligence
9 个月Much thanks for your post!
radicality.co.uk | Executive Thinking Partner | Personal & Organisational Transformation | #ChangeIsAnInsideJob
4 年Why leaders have to own their vulnerability: "As leaders if you talk about your mistakes, it makes it safe for others to do likewise." - brilliant this, #vulnerability truly is a superpower to navigate rapid, iterative change which = life. lets get practicing :-) Great job David Green
VP Talent | Founder of One Circle HR | Executive Leadership Development | Talent & Performance Management | People & Culture | Forbes ME Contributor
4 年Ann Betz
STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS EXECUTIVE| Building the Organizational Capabilities that Create Sustainable Change| Strategic Advisor
4 年Leaders must be proactive!.....I love that. So many leaders forget such simple point.
Simplifying Talent Processes, Championing Mental Wellbeing, Navigating Talent Complexity Risks
4 年David Green how do we talk psychological safety when we not addressing poor leadership or disengagement / burning out of people We still not out of the Covid-Pandemic and most probably will be there for a while to come that has tremendous impact on the psychological safety. We still not looking deep enough into the subject. What is the individual impact on the mental health of all individuals. How much of it is contributed by the individual and how much is a results of ineffective systems poor leadership and an inability to be able to effectively listen to the employee despite talking Psychological safety Our experiences is that we can't have psychological safety until we have people engaged, and that includes engaged with their own talents experiencing success . Until we have made ineffective leader effective or when we have moved those over-promoted into positions outside the leadership as they are active obstructions to psychological safety We still not having holistic enough insight into the business its employees and their experiences that is individualised able to capture the root cause level views of their disengagement or burning out These are available and we have that access just not in digital big data