Creating Psychological Safety in Teams and the Organization

Psychological safety is creating conditions where people are comfortable expressing and being themselves. When employees have psychological safety at work, they feel comfortable sharing concerns and mistakes without fear of embarrassment, retribution or consequences. When work environments have high psychological safety, good things happen including; increased collaboration, strong corrective action, stronger ideas are shared and ultimately better performance. This doesn’t mean that lower standards of performance are acceptable, but that organizations learn quickly from mistakes and how to prevent mistakes moving forward. This is where human performance comes in, the way people, culture, equipment, works systems and processes interact. People are the key to solutions; they know their job best and understand how mistakes happen and what can be done to prevent them- how organizations can fail safely. Psychological safety is about candor and making it possible for productive opposition and free exchange so people can learn from different points of view in real-time.

Leaders of teams, departments or other groups within companies play an important role in shaping psychological safety. Psychological safety is a complex issue that is unique to the organization, here are a few ideas to help organizations create the conditions of psychological safety. It’s a constant process of small and large corrections that allow organizations to progress forward.

• Leader self-assessments

• Executive workshops & longstanding leadership learning trios with a focus on the learner mindset and psychological safety

• Run several psychological safety programs including training, leader toolkit, practice guides and practical application in real time

• Ongoing support & coaching ensuring new habits are realized