We hear so much about how important Psychological Safety is in the workplace, how we need Psychological Safety for innovation, for engaged people and for high performing teams. We know we need it and most of the time it’s talked about as if it’s a thing we can grab off the shelf and ‘upgrade’ our teams with.
That’s a mistake: because it’s spoken about in that way, many managers work on ‘getting’ Psychological Safety in the team or push their people to act as if they are psychologically safe.
Unfortunately, there’s no overnight upgrade or quick fix. So how do we support our leaders and managers to create the conditions for genuine Psychological Safety and benefit from the rewards of such a culture?
In reality, the work of creating Psychological Safety is a continuous process and it isn’t always linear. In addition, not everyone in the team will have the same experience of Psychological Safety, so managers must listen to individual need and be flexible. In a group, Psychological Safety has distinct stages that you and your team need to progress through. The fourth stage (Challenger Safety) is the highest level and the one that supports the highest team performance. In that way, it’s like the 4 stages of team development model: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing that many managers are taught. (Also known as Tuckman’s model of Team Development.)
Photo 213005753 | Psychological Safety © Jon Anders Wiken | Dreamstime.com
Why is Psychological Safety so important for our teams?
When we need to make an investment of time and effort in the longer term, we need to be really clear what the goal is and why we’re doing it, as we would for any project. We also need senior leadership to be behind it, or our efforts run the risk of being undermined by other priorities.
Amy Edmondson defines Psychological Safety as “a shared belief by members of a team that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”
When people in our teams feel psychologically safe they’re more likely to:
- Speak up and disagree – really useful for spotting potential pitfalls or problems in a project or new idea while it’s still easy to change things
- Share mistakes or things that didn’t go according to plan – great for learning from each other, generating more innovation and continuously improving team performance
- Share their ideas or try a new approach – again this is great for innovation and bringing in many different perspectives to problem solving
- feel that they belong and are valued – this means your people are more likely to stay in the company, and will be more engaged at work
- talk about their challenges (personal & work related) more openly – so managers can offer more help, earlier on. This reduces stress, improves wellbeing and improves performance.
What I’m saying is: supporting teams to build Psychological Safety is crucial for leaders and managers, because it enables the team to get on with their work more efficiently, more productively and with better results.
Having confirmed why we’re doing it how do we build up to genuine Psychological Safety with our teams?
The four levels of Psychological Safety (and what needs to be in place for each)
- Inclusion safety
Image by John Hain from Pixabay
This is the lowest level of Psychological Safety. The very first thing that’s needed is an inclusive environment. For our managers, that means acknowledging that each member of their team is different: diverse backgrounds, experiences and perspectives make them who they are. Each individual will have different needs around Psychological Safety and for their work in general.
Signs that there’s work to do at this level: not everyone in the team is engaged; there is a high level of agreement and disagreement is very rare; you know very little about life outside of work for some or all team members.
The actions needed at this level: promoting diversity and inclusion in hiring practices, providing diversity training; inviting quieter team members to share their opinions and respectfully challenging behaviour or responses that are based on biases.
- Learner safety
Photo 236681680 © Dzmitry Dzemidovich | Dreamstime.com
The next level of Psychological Safety is the one that enables learning, which you definitely want for your people and the organisation’s success. Once people experience level one, Inclusion Safety, then they are more open to learning.
Signs that there’s work to do at this level: not much feedback is given or, what is given is not constructive or doesn’t support your people to develop. There is a culture of blame, and when problems or mistakes are discussed, people tend to be very defensive. People avoid engaging in learning activities, or they are seen as ‘going through the motions’ without creating any real growth. People avoid experimentation and prefer to stick with the status quo.
The actions needed at this level: managers can encourage questions and learning as a team. They can treat mistakes as learning opportunities rather than blaming people for them, and model this by sharing their mistakes and the learning they have taken from them. They need to give constructive feedback in ways their people can take on board. All team members should be encouraged and empowered to give & receive feedback in a supportive context.
- Contributor safety
Photo 164260923 © David Burke | Dreamstime.com
Leadership skills are important for moving into Contributor Safety. At this level, everyone feels their opinions and their ideas are welcome and valued, even if they disagree with others in the team. Disagreements are resolved and the team works well together. When this is happening, the team produces much higher quality work and will solve problems much more creatively.
Unfortunately, a 2019 survey showed that only 3 out of 10 employees believe their opinions matter at work, so it seems not many teams have reached contributor safety – yet.
Signs that there’s work to do at this level: There are a few individuals who tend to lead with their ideas. People think no-one will listen even if they do share their ideas and don’t usually ask questions.
The actions needed at this level: Managers need to lead the way here by inviting people to share their ideas and managing discussions so that disagreements are aired respectfully. Managers need to become more aware of their own biases and the ways they may dismiss or discourage some opinions and ideas.
- Challenger safety
Illustration 107591576 © Yan Batshev | Dreamstime.com
This is the highest level of Psychological Safety. At this level, members of a team can challenge each other respectfully without fear of being punished or ostracised. Everyone’s contribution is thought of as valuable, even when it goes against the consensus or challenges individuals or the group.
Signs that there’s work to do at this level: when people give feedback or make contributions, they are overwhelmingly positive of leadership/management or of the existing group consensus. If someone disagrees, they are shut down or considered a trouble-maker.
The actions needed at this level: Managers need to model challenger safety to their teams. They need to invite regular feedback with the intention of seeking continuous improvement, not to bolster their ego. Managers need to listen to disagreement and seek to understand the other’s perspective. They also need to maintain boundaries around behaviours that are respectful and constructive during a disagreement and challenge anything that is not constructive. Managers need to show how feedback or disagreement has been taken on board and used to make improvements.
That’s easier to say than to do …
Yes, it’s a lot easier to talk about Psychological Safety than it is to do it! I recently created some bespoke training for an organisation which had a problem with Psychological Safety. Team members didn’t know how to support each other and challenge poor behaviours at high-profile events. Occasionally disagreements between external attendees became heated, and insults would be traded. By working with the events team we were able to identify some quick wins to create a more Psychologically Safe environment for all, and to set in place some longer term plans to enable everyone at events to intervene, regardless of their level in the organisation, or their role at the event.
The challenging situations they were facing can seem impossible to resolve, especially when we are in the moment and just trying to do our best. By working with the team to understand the nature of the issue we built their understanding of Psychological Safety and their ability to initiate courageous conversations. That supported them to resolve future issues with event attendees, without damaging their important external partnerships.
If you’ve got a sticky problem in your workplace with bad behaviours, it’s quite likely there’s a problem around Psychological Safety. If you’d like to have a chat about how we can work together me a call on 07880 776756 or email jacqui@yourpeoplepotential.co.uk.
