What YOU Think About Psychological Safety Doesn’t Matter!

One of my favorite psychology fun facts is that we all think we are normal.?Obnoxious people don’t think they’re obnoxious; they think you are too tightly wound and need to loosen up! ??We think that our view of the world is “normal.”

Now, let’s apply this same concept to psychological safety: if you feel it’s safe, others do too. ?Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work that way as this real-world example illustrates.?

My client’s COO wanted to be sure that a potential process change wouldn’t impact safety, so he called the HSE VP who wasn’t available. ?He then called the HSE Director who was also not available, so he left a message asking for a callback.?

A peek into each of their brains would look something like this:

·????????COO’s brain: I am reaching out to a colleague with a technical question. ?We’ve met but never talked one-on-one so this will give me an opportunity to connect and appreciate his hard work.

·????????Directors Brain: Oh, crap, what did I do?!? ???I must’ve screwed up or made somebody in ops mad.?I’d better call my wife and tell her to hold on to our vacation deposit.

Both had reasonable, but not shared beliefs!

·????????The COO had a technical question and hoped for a quick answer.?Business was good so he had no complaints, and he thought of himself as a levelheaded and approachable guy.?

·????????The Director reasoned that his boss’s boss just called him directly for the first time ever and just said call me back.??The COO would go to the VP with anything routine so this cannot be good!

The moral of the story is that what you think about psychological safety doesn’t matter to anyone who is not thinking with your brain! ?It doesn’t matter what you think people should think!?The absence of symptoms doesn’t mean you are healthy.?Similarly, even if you have never made things “dangerous,” it doesn’t mean that others feel safe. ?You must make it safe to speak up, especially if you are a leader!?

During a break at a workshop with a Stanford University neurological surgical team, a nurse pointed out a doctor and said that he was probably the best brain surgeon on Earth.?She said he starts every surgery with a plea for help.??“Folks, this is my first surgery today and I need you! ?I need you to make sure that everything that goes in comes out!?I need you to help me because I’m so focused on the brain that I may not notice that the patient stopped breathing.?If anything concerns you at all; this patient, this team, and this institution need you to speak up. Are we agreed?”

He knew his guru status could make it seem “unsafe” to question him, so he went to great pains to make sure everyone knew it was welcome.?You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to proactively build a psychologically safe environment. What practices have you used??

#psychologicalsafety