Psychological Safety - Top tips to build an inclusive, high-performance team culture

Is your team ‘playing it safe’ at work? Do they stay silent in meetings or agree with what you say without question? They probably don’t feel ‘psychologically safe’ to challenge you or each other and you could be missing opportunities to learn, to innovate and to engage people. A change in your leadership style may be needed to 'smash' your goals.

What is Psychological Safety?

Amy Edmondson, Professor at Harvard Business School defines it as;

“A climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves”.

When you have psychological safety, you “feel comfortable sharing concerns and mistakes without fear of embarrassment or retribution”. You can be yourself without fear of judgement or negative consequences. You feel accepted and respected for who you are and the skills that you bring. As a result, you feel safe to speak up; to ask questions, to raise concerns, to propose ideas, and to share mistakes so that everyone can learn and improve.

Why is Psychological Safety important?

In his book ‘Black Box Thinking’, Matthew Syed shares a story about a lady named Elaine. She was 37 with a loving husband and 2 children. One day, she went to hospital to have a routine operation to fix a sinus problem. The procedure was carried out by a very experienced team including a surgeon with more than 30 years’ experience. Elaine was put under general anaesthetic and a device was put in her mouth to allow oxygen to be pumped into her lungs. However, Elaine’s jaw muscles tightened. Additional drugs were used, and alternative devices used to try to open the airway. They all failed. Elaine started to turn blue as her oxygen levels fell. Additional clinicians came to help. Alternative procedures were tried and failed. A nurse recognised that a tracheostomy may be needed; a last-resort procedure where a cut is made in the throat and oxygen is pumped through a tube.?The nurse let the doctors know the tracheostomy kit was ready to use. They looked but didn’t respond. They continued with what they were doing and the nurse hesitated. Surely the doctors had considered the tracheostomy? If the nurse interrupted them again, she may be blamed if anything went wrong. The nurse agonised for minutes by which time it was too late. Elaine died.

There are numerous examples from other industries where disasters could have been averted if someone had challenged what was happening. However, safety is not the only benefit. Imagine the mistakes that are being repeated in your organisation because your people are too scared to share lessons learned. Imagine how innovative, inclusive, and engaging your workplace would be if people could be open with you and with each other. If they could ask questions, give constructive feedback and propose ideas without fear of judgement.

How to build Psychological Safety

A recent McKinsey study found that only 43% of people report a positive climate in their team. Leaders of the remaining 57% should consider moving away from authoritative, ‘command and control’ styles of leadership. Below are some tips to create a psychologically safe environment for your team.

1. Get a coach for yourself and for the team. This will reveal your strengths and areas you can work on to develop a more supportive, authentic style of leadership. It will also reveal dynamics in the team that may need to be addressed.
2. Set expectations - Emphasize the team’s purpose and goals, why change is needed, what you want to happen differently and invite them to participate. Perhaps you want to save lives, improve quality, reduce complaints, or simply make this a better place to work. Reframe failure as a learning opportunity and a natural by-product of experimentation. “Without it, we cannot learn and improve collectively”.
3. Role model – Be humble and open about your own weak spots. Don’t pretend you have all the answers. Show some vulnerability and let people know when you make mistakes (you are only human). Show you care about their thoughts by being curious, asking questions and actively listening. What could have been done better this week? What would make your work easier or safer? Invite people to ask questions and to share opinions, particularly those who wouldn’t normally do so.?
4. Reinforce – Acknowledge and thank people if they raise concerns or share mistakes. Ask them what needs to change. Encourage those who are reluctant and address those who violate the boundaries of the agreed path forward or who damage the new way of working by judging others, criticising, using micro-aggressions and 'banter'.

Please like, share and get in touch if you would like help to assess and improve psychological safety in your organisation. [email protected]