I was asked about psychological safety. My manager warned me to say nothing!
You do your best work when you feel safe. Julianna Margulies
It was Amy Edmondson that first referred to psychological safety and its importance. In her TED talk she highlights that we focus more on managing impressions and what others think of us rather than looking to innovate and be creative. Effectively, people end up looking over the shoulder rather than putting themselves above the parapet or challenging the status quo. She said psychological safety is “people’s perceptions of the consequences of taking interpersonal risks in the workplace”. Gartner say, “psychological safety is an environment that encourages, recognizes and rewards individuals for their contributions and ideas by making individuals feel safe when taking interpersonal risks.” Frazer et al (2017), in their meta-analysis on this topic, said that 3 levels exist; the individual with their colleague, the team, and the organisation.
So why does it matter?
There is much research to support that better results originate from teams exhibiting greater levels of psychological safety. Google brought this to the attention of the business world when they announced, following their own internal study, psychological safety was the number one predictor of high performance in their teams. Amy Edmondson cites examples such as Nokia, Wells Fargo and Bridgewater Associates in her book “The Fearless Organisation: Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation and growth (2018)”. She explores high profile organisation successes and failures clearly documenting the reasons in relation to psychological safety.
We spoke to a manager recently, working in a healthcare setting, who had introduced practices that are shown to enhance psychological safety. He said, “previously my time was spent fixing rota issues, making all the decisions and everyone looked to me for a response. It’s taken a while but now the team make decisions, cover shifts by themselves, and come to me with solutions. They also challenge me and the decisions the organisation makes – it keeps me on my toes. It isn’t always comfortable for me, but we get better results because of it and I am able to do work that adds much more value. Everyone is more committed, and the weight doesn’t feel like it’s always on my shoulders”. No surprise, but we learned that this managers team were also the most engaged in the company!
Give people the space, confidence, and courage to deliver and things become easier for people leaders.
However, not every manager embraces this way of being. In fact, McKinsey have written a full report on the importance of leadership development to promote a more psychologically safe and trusting work environment. They highlight key leadership behaviours that can enhance or diminish the team climate – the responsible and privileged position that leaders find themselves in truly can be make or break.
What will you see if psychological safety is lacking?
If you are lucky enough, the environment you operate in is like the one created by the manager cited above. But all too often we hear of quite the opposite. Stories of how someone has raised a concern and their manager has ‘shot’ them down or blamed it on them. Stories of how managers have been quite blatant in saying “I have no intention of changing” despite the known impact on others. Stories of nodding heads in meetings yet little progress when it comes to action as no real commitment exists.
Below are some examples of things you may see, hear and feel if psychological safety is lacking. Can you relate to any of these?
What can you do to improve psychological safety?
Timothy Clark, in his book “The 4 stages of psychological safety”, nicely highlights the need for inclusion, learning, contribution, and challenge in a staged approach. It's well worth a read.
- Inclusion safety – creating the conditions where everyone can feel a sense of belonging and able to be themselves
- Learner safety – an environment where curiosity is encouraged, with people feeling able to ask questions and experiment
- Contributor safety – people now can use their skills to contribute and add value
- Challenger safety – individuals look for opportunities to challenge the status quo and improve things without fear
But isolated initiatives, sporadic bursts of activity, or regular ‘tick box’ exercises will not gain traction. Creating an environment of psychological safety requires role modelling, action, and continuous dialogue. It’s easy to say you want to be something but if the behaviours don’t reflect that, then what’s the point? It’s a well referenced example, but Enron, seen as one of the greatest corporate failures in American history due to fraud, had core values of respect and integrity! Maybe if those values were truly lived people would have felt safe enough to challenge before it was too late?
Enabling the 4 stages requires a commitment. An openness to accept fallibility (Brene Brown refers to vulnerability in leadership and how it builds trust) and a desire to actively listen to those around us, seeking opportunities to connect and debate. Using simple and open questions such as “what do you think?” or holding post-implementation reviews that take on learning and shape future decisions, will make a difference. Injecting fun and opportunities for creativity encourages others to show their personality, breaking down barriers. Regularly meeting with each other and having 121’s with managers ensures alignment and stronger bonds.
More recently, with COVID-19 impacting how, where, and when people work, the distance between individuals, their managers, and the wider team has grown. Psychological safety is bound by relationships and so investing here is critical. An intentional collaboration can act as a catalyst for this and that’s why we are fans of using the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology to do just that.
In a LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® workshop everybody participates. As everyone starts from the same place i.e., warming up using the LEGO® bricks and understanding more about metaphor and storytelling, the sense of togetherness and belonging can be seen, heard, and felt.
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® process involves people sharing and describing their build in groups and gives opportunity for others to ask questions of the model. All learn together and can contribute, sharing their knowledge, skills, and experience with others.
Building and then talking through the model reduces the emotion surrounding the topic at hand where others ask questions of the model, not the person. It allows people to dig deeper and get to root cause issues – healthy conflict is created, with people feeling free to challenge. The only unhealthy bust-up we’ve experienced is when an eager participant dismantled another person’s model without asking!
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® approach addresses the stages that Timothy Clark prescribes and people have fun whilst doing it!
So how confident are you that your team, function, and organisation feel psychologically safe? What things can you do to help foster the right conditions?
For some further interesting reading and practical guidance, check out:
- Research: To Excel, Diverse Teams Need Psychological Safety by Henrik Bresmen and Amy C. Edmondson
- High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here’s How to Create It by Laura Delizonna
Visit www.prometheanplay.co.uk to find out more.
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