What we mean by psychological safety:

Psychological safety means feeling safe and knowing it will be welcomed to take interpersonal risks, to speak up, to disagree openly, challenge the status quo, and to express concerns without fear of negative repercussions or pressure to downplay bad news.

Why it matters:

• Our brain can’t tell the difference between social pain and physical pain.
• When we don’t feel psychological safe it compromises the brain’s ability to think by up to 30%.
• There are many benefits to increasing psychological safety these include: Increased innovation and more ideas, people won’t speak up or write their ideas down if they don’t feel comfortable to share.
• When there’s psychological safety people will highlight problems early, and talk about issues before they arise or become too big to ignore.
• When psychological safety isn’t there people won’t admit mistakes and therefore you can’t learn from it, make the relevant changes or reduce the chances of it happening again.
• Improves diversity, equity and inclusion. When you feel and are included, you can focus your energy into performance.
• High retention and happier people lead to a competitive edge.

What good looks like:

Read the following description, and make notes on where you most want to improve psychological safety in your organisation.

• Individuals voicing opinions, speaking up knowing it will be welcomed.
• People admitting mistakes knowing they will be supported.
• Feeling empowered to act on their own initiative when it’s for the good of the team.
• Being transparent as builds trust.
• Setting clear expectations and seeking feedback.
• Giving feedback at all levels regardless of status/hierarchy.
• Invite challenge in.
• Recognising people as individuals.
• Leading with inclusive behaviours, such as being culturally competent, active listening, demonstrating curiosity and asking questions to understand rather defend position.
• Thanking people for giving feedback.

Common traps to avoid:

• We forget how scary we are. Mistaking a lack of challenge for agreement. Challenging perceived authority does not come naturally. We need to go out of our way to mine for challenge. E.g. by asking direct questions as set out above.
• Not questioning your list of who counts. When we have an issue or challenge that arises we typically go to the same people to seek advice.
• Our own blindspots/biases or allowing someone else’s blindspots/biases to influence us.
• Not being authentic yourself.
• Non-inclusive behaviours that hinder psychological safety and that goes unchallenged.
• Not taking the time/energy to get to know people as individuals.
• Lack of transparency and poor communication.
• If you would score your psychological safety as high, of assuming everyone is experiencing the same environment as you. A team is only as psychologically safe as the least safe person on the team, and those with least safety tend to be those who would identify as marginalised, under-represented, and/or at risk.
• Fixed mindset and defending your position rather than demonstrating curiosity and asking open questions.
• Blame culture

Possible actions to improve psychological safety in your culture:

• Set yourself up to be welcoming by assuming any interaction or relationship is going to productive. Rather than waiting for someone to prove themselves. Assuming they are going to be of value, will increase the chance they will be significantly.
• Show an interest in the person, and their story. This will not only increase their sense of belonging, but encourage them to bring their full selves – unfiltered.
• Make time for people. This is a proxy for how much we value them.
• Give them status in the group. E.g. ‘I’m delighted to have…. Joining us because….’
• Encourage others in the team to be inclusive. E.g. When joining a new team, impact of two colleagues reaching out to ask me to go to lunch with them on the first day.
• Ask for their input. And ask follow up questions. Thank them for it.
• Be explicit about your desire to maximise cognitive diversity of the group – encouraging people to not fall into ‘group think’ or conform. E.g. It’s brilliant to have someone joining us with a really good insight into the xyz culture.
• The environment we create as leaders will either full people with a desire to learn, or create fear of failure. We have to try and remove anxiety around learning and failure, while maintaining a desire for high standards.
• Reframe failure and mistakes as learning opportunities.
• Use ‘Red teaming’ as a technique. Task people to think about how they would beat us if they were the competition.
• Actively ask for and seek feedback.
• Give recognition when recognition is due.