Guide To Improving Psychological Safety.
Everyone can positively contribute to psychological safety.
watch a summary
What is ‘psychological safety’?
Psychological safety is the absence of interpersonal fear. When people feel safe to contribute in a group, they experience a phenomenon known as psychological safety.
Why does it matter at work?
When workplaces have high rates of psychological safety, innovation, collaboration and teamwork skyrockets.
Countless studies have discovered psychological safety is the ‘secret sauce’ for high performing teams.
In one study of 180 high and low performing teams, it was discovered psychological safety was the #1 factor influencing productivity.
In the medical field it was discovered to be a groundbreaking phenomenon which led to more reporting of high stakes errors.
Psychological safety is an individual construct.
Meaning you can’t decide if a space feels ‘safe’ for someone else.
But, there are things you can do to positively influence the likelihood.
One way is to invest time in building a trusted relationship with people at work. From that place of inclusion and belonging, they can create individual connections within the group.
From there, they can decide if a space is comfortable and safe to express.
How do I know if I have safety at work?
In its simplest form, if people behave in self-preserving ways, they are not experiencing safety. That could be because of the workplace or a lack of feeling safety within themselves.
Here are some signals around safety at work:
When a workplace has high psychological safety, everyone feels comfortable sharing their perspectives and are more likely to have an open dialogue.
When a workplace has low psychological safety, people feel less comfortable speaking up. Instead, they behave in self-preserving ways.
As you read this list, what do you notice about your own workplace?
Three elements of safe teams.
Research has discovered that in safe teams, the leader has a strong connection with each person and there are people within the group who make sure group discussions are productive and positive, by distributing every contributor's voice equally.
As a checklist, this looks like:
The leader has a positive personal connection with each team member.
Each team member knows their shared goal and how one another contributes.
Each team member knows how their individual contribution adds value.
What do you notice as you review this checklist?
The six evidence-based strategies to increase psychological safety.
1.Building positive relationships.
Teams with positive 1:1 relationships with their peers and leaders are more likely to define themselves as ‘safer’ to perform in. When employees get quality 1:1 time with their manager independently of the team, psychological safety improves by 12%.
It’s not the length of time we spend together that dictates the strength of a relationship, but rather how meaningful it is. For example, the world's longest study on happiness discovered the quality of connections was more impactful than the frequency.
Would showing an intent to build a more positive relationship increase safety in your team? Something to reflect on today is whether there is a relationship that would benefit from sincere, positive attention.
In our training, we outline specific strategies managers and team members can use to promote a positive interpersonal relationship.
2. Showing ‘belonging cues’.
Belonging cues are verbal and non-verbal ways of showing someone they are included in a group setting.
Belonging cues leverage the psychological need to experience likeness with others. As a result, interpersonal fear reduces.
In one Australian study, the act of distributing interpersonal belonging cues (distributing attention in a group) improved performance by 40%.
Belonging cues can be as simple as smiling as someone when they walk in the door and as thoughtful as making sure everyone gets a chance to contribute. What all ‘cues’ share is that people are acknowledged. It doesn't have to be fancy, but an acknowledgment is essential for safer teams.
In our training, we discuss specific strategies and easy wins for people to communicate belonging cues at work.
3. Managing stress responses.
One study discovered that people would rather have a boss be consistently average, than inconsistently up and down. Why? Because we regulate our emotions at work around those in power.
Knowing what ‘zone’ we are in at work can help us increase psychological safety. Not only are we keeping ourselves safe, we’re keeping our team safe too: from our bad mood.
Everyone needs a toolkit for mentally managing stressful situations at work. Something to reflect on is whether your ‘red zones’ are making a cameo at work, and if so, how frequently. There are no bad answers, moreso a chance to reflect: could I create a circuit breaker to help manage my response to stressors at work?
In our training, we share a framework for managing ‘red zone’ moments, and techniques to keep yourself and others safe.
4. Receiving feedback without feeling defensive.
Research has discovered that defensiveness is lowered when people experience psychological safety. Studies also demonstrate people who are able to positively reframe stressful situations perform better.
By understanding how defensiveness manifests, leaders and employees alike are able to not only lower defensiveness in themselves, but know what to do when they see it in others.
Something to reflect on is what causes you to experience defensiveness at work by asking yourself what your internal dialogue is when you feel that way. For example, leaders often tell me it’s when their reputation is on the line, there is a wild deadline, or they believe they’ll be seen as incompetent. I call this managing an amygdala hijack.
In our training, we give people practical frameworks to help how they respond to feedback, through a concept called ‘positive reframing’.
5. Giving constructive feedback.
Giving feedback creates an environment where it’s safe to learn and grow. Studies have shown people perform better with daily vs annual feedback.
There are really only three reasons to give someone feedback. They are:
To endorse a positive behaviour.
To adapt a behaviour.
To help someone achieve a goal.
Framed like that, it becomes clear when we don’t need to give feedback (e.g it’s a gripe vs actually useful!). Equally, it shows us that feedback should help someone take a positive step forward.
Consider whether one of the above criteria (endorse positive behaviours, adapt a behaviour, help someone achieve a goal), could help you give feedback framed positively.
In our training, we share a framework for evidence-based feedback where both parties have a positive, two-way conversation, reducing the likelihood of defensiveness.
6. Being explicit with what we need.
Did you know 60% of people lie to their therapist? Asking for what we need is a work in progress for so many of us.
Being explicit with your intent, and what you need, helps people manage their feelings about it, accordingly. You’re not being rude by asking for what you need: you’re being clear.
This goes both ways and people who say this is the most useful are people who are responding to fast demands from their boss.
For employees, it’s a reverse brief. It’s the idea that people love hearing the word ‘yes’ and even more so, ‘yes with a plan’. One way you can protect yourself from saying yes to priorities that don’t move the dial forward, or aren’t your core competency, is to take ownership by creating a reverse brief.
For leaders, it’s an agreement. We often forget, just because we’re speaking, it doesn’t mean instructions have been heard. One way we can flip that is to always have our team member play back what they understand the instruction to be and how they intend to execute. How they respond tells you how to improve your communication for next time.
Our training focuses on how to ask for what we need and check for understanding, both from a leader lens (e.g. how to communicate expectations) and employee perspective (e.g. how to manage upwards).
If you don’t feel safe at work.
If you don’t feel safe at work, you need a personal safety plan.
Recap: six tools to increase psychological safety.
Create sincere bonds with team mates.
Acknowledge others explicitly.
Manage how I respond to stress.
Work on lowering my defensiveness.
Give feedback, often.
Be explicit with what I want and need.
Establishing my safe team checklist:
I have a positive relationship with each of my direct reports.
Everyone on my team knows the shared goal and how each person's contribution interlinks.
Each person knows how their individual contribution adds value.
In our Creating Psychological Safety and Leadership Programmes, we teach these lessons.
Individual contributor and leaders learn six practical ways to increase psychological safety, based on their sphere of influence.
Leadership Training
For future, first time, and established leaders.
Creating Psychological Safety Programme
For leaders and individual contributors.