What is Psychological Safety: All you Need to Know!

I remember reading this book by Irene Muchemi-Ndiritu titled ‘Lucky Girl’. When Soila started her new co-operate job, she was ready to impress and take the office by storm. During one of her first meetings, she pitched an impromptu idea to their boss who loved it, but her supervisor felt challenged. Later, her supervisor called her out and called her a show-off. This is a brief example of how a workplace functions without psychological safety. In a psychologically safe environment, Ideas should be welcome irrespective of who is pitching, because everyone wants to achieve the same goal at work.

Key Takeaways

When you feel psychologically safe, you are more likely to perform well anywhere like at home, school, and work.
4 steps an individual has to go through to feel psychologically safe are Inclusion Safety, Learner Safety, Contributor Safety, and Challenger Safety.
The three fundamental psychological safety are Open communication, Trust and mutual respect, and A system that learns from mistakes.
Psychological Safety can result in better decision-making since people are at ease expressing their thoughts and worries, which results in a wider variety of viewpoints.

What is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety is the lack of communicative fear. When you feel psychologically safe, you are more likely to perform well anywhere like at home, school, and work. It is the belief that you can express your opinions, worries, or errors without fear of punishment or humiliation.

According to Maslow’s renowned hierarchy, humans must meet minimal needs to survive, contribute to a community, and reach self-actualization. Social scientists claim that psychological safety is one of these basic needs, and people need it to perform well in all parts of life, including home, school, and work. It involves being at ease to take risks, speak up, disagree freely, and raise concerns without fear of negative consequences or the temptation to sugarcoat bad news. Additionally, it creates an environment where people feel comfortable sharing innovative ideas without fear of judgment.

In this type of setting, you feel safe to share feedback with others, especially negative opinions to leaders about areas for growth or change. Accepting mistakes, being vulnerable, and speaking truth to power is okay. Psychological safety on the job or at home produces a more innovative and stronger community.

Types of Psychological Safety

Timothy R. Clark in his book titled ‘The Four Stages Of Psychological Safety‘ mentioned that people have to go through 4 steps to feel psychologically safe. These stages are essential for employee’s mental health and well-being. Without them, people are bound to feel scared and fake at work.

1. Inclusion Safety –

During this first stage, You feel safe being a part of the team. You enjoy being present, do not feel cut off, and believe you are needed and appreciated. In other words, the members of the social collective welcome you and give you a common identity. They no longer see you as an outsider.

However, it is critical to recognize that inclusive safety is more than just tolerance; it is not an attempt to hide differences or politely pretend they do not exist. Inclusion safety is offered by embracing individuals into your community because they are human beings. This first stage is important because it brings the ultimate connection that overcomes all other distinctions.

2. Learner Safety –

The second stage is the safety of learning. People learn by asking questions. At this stage, you are allowed to make minor mistakes and ask for assistance. Learning and growth are important demands that must be met for ideas to thrive in a company.

At this point, fear is separated from mistakes, and mistakes are rewarded as part of the learning process. However, to qualify for learner safety, you must actively participate in the learning process; it does not occur naturally.

When your business prioritizes learner safety, learning is encouraged and celebrated. When you don’t learn, errors are concealed and penalized.

3. Contributor Safety –

At this stage, Members need to feel comfortable contributing their thoughts without fear of shame or ridicule. This situation is more difficult because contributing your thoughts can enhance team members’ psychosocial sensitivity. Contributor safety addresses the fundamental human desire to make a difference and input significant contributions. When we build contributor safety for others, we provide them liberty, direction, and encouragement in exchange for effort and results.

When your organization prioritizes contributor safety, your team thrives under outcome accountability. The thing is that jobs are clearly defined, but individuals are encouraged to think beyond their jobs. Small victories are appreciated.

4. Challenger Safety-

This means having the ability to question the team’s processes, create fresh approaches, adopt new behaviors, and criticize others’ opinions—even those of more senior team members. This is the most significant “stage” of psychological safety since it can keep potentially harmful ideas from entering the real world while allowing for the development of new ideas and the opportunity to learn from failures. When people are equipped with challenger safety, they can resist the urge to fit in and participate in the creative process.

However, because it jeopardizes the organization’s power structure, resource allocation, incentives, reward system, and operational speed, organizations are hesitant to provide challenger safety. Growth depends on innovation, but it also presents a significant cultural issue because change is unpredictable and can be difficult.

The Three Fundamentals of Psychological Safety

1| Open Communication

Open communication is the foundation of psychological safety in the workplace. It encourages employees to express their views or problems without fear of repercussions or humiliation. This includes providing constructive feedback, proposing new ideas, and acknowledging mistakes.
Leaders in psychologically secure environments aggressively promote open debate and value varied perspectives. They recognize that everyone has unique perspectives that can help with problem-solving and decision-making processes.

2| Trust and Mutual Respect

Trust is another important aspect of psychological safety. Employees want to know that their coworkers will not hinder or insult them for expressing their opinions or recognizing mistakes.
Mutual respect is linked to trust. It means accepting each individual’s worth to the team, regardless of their function or degree. When employees feel valued, they are more willing to contribute and participate in collaborative activities.

3| A System That Learns From Mistakes

Mistakes should be considered as learning opportunities rather than failures in psychologically safe environments. This approach will help you to take careful risks and evolve without fear of consequences or disgrace.

Leaders in these settings encourage a growth mentality, emphasizing that making errors is acceptable as long as we learn from them. This method promotes resilience, adaptability, and continual learning, which are necessary for success in today’s corporate environment.

Why is Psychological Safety Important?

First, when there is psychological safety, team members feel more motivated and involved because they believe their opinions count and they can voice their concerns without fear of retaliation.

Secondly, it can result in better decision-making since people are at ease expressing their thoughts and worries, which results in a wider variety of viewpoints.

Thirdly, because team members are at ease admitting their errors and growing from them, it can promote a culture of ongoing learning and development.

How do you create Psychological Safety?

Here are some ways you can develop this culture in your workplace:

1. Avoid the urge to create the perfect team

As a manager, it is natural to want to hold everyone to a high standard or show your team off during meetings and reports. However, focusing too much on “being perfect” can harm rather than help your team. Research shows that perfectionist leaders react quickly to mistakes, distrust employees who do not meet their standards, and micromanage more frequently. To build trust, you have to let go of perfectionism and let your team learn. When mistakes happen rather than blaming your team, try to focus on the problem and find a solution.

Also, people tend to be more effective when you recognize and appreciate their efforts. So as a manager, you have to acknowledge your team. This does not mean that you should not correct them when necessary. It is important to appreciate people for giving their thoughts. Expressing gratitude for comments encourages people to offer their ideas more in the future.

2. Promote variety equality, and inclusion

One of your primary obligations as a new manager is to ensure that your team consists of people from different creative backgrounds. People will struggle to show up honestly and feel safe at work until they see others who are similar to them.

Furthermore, variety has to evolve into a sense of belonging in which people are noticed and respected for their uniqueness rather than being molded into a single controlled way of thinking, talking, or behaving. Here are some things you can do to promote psychological safety in your team;

Only ask when you truly want to know. When looking for different perspectives, be sincere. If you do not want to know what someone else thinks, do not ask.
Do not put people on the spot. Sharing an opinion often entails being vulnerable. If someone is not ready to be vulnerable, do not push them. Learn to read basic body language, so you will notice when you cross a line.
Avoid getting defensive while responding to questions or feedback. When you are too defensive, you discourage people from giving feedback. If you feel defensive, you can step back and say, “Thanks for informing me,” or “I need some time to think about it.”

3. Communicate carefully

To encourage working environments in which everyone feels respected, managers must learn how to lead with more compassion and humanity. When employees understand that their managers are human, they are likely to participate truly and effectively.

Remember to be a transparent communicator. Clear, precise, and consistent communication with all team members promotes psychological safety. Provide frequent and straightforward information, especially during periods of change.

Consider the following;

Everybody needs an editor. Before discussing sensitive or complex matters, request someone else check an email or listen to your meeting arrangements.
Make it clear that you want feedback; give your staff a simple way to ask questions and gain clarification. Express gratitude for their contributions.

4. Model vulnerability

Teams who feel psychologically safe are comfortable with vulnerability and are willing to try new things. You may demonstrate this to your team by acknowledging your own mistakes and being open about what you know and do not know.

Normalize “I do not know.” Be willing to acknowledge this and provide examples of mistakes you have made and learned from. Empathize with their difficulties. Show them that learning is part of the job. You can have meetings where they talk about their problems and you advise them.

However, showing vulnerability should not give way to disrespect or laziness. Your team should strive to be better, equipped with the information you shared from your mistakes.

5. Interact with your team

It might be difficult to provide space and opportunities for informal interactions, especially when certain teams work remotely. In addition to learning their professional goals, make an effort to learn about team members’ interests, such as hobbies, family, and travel. Encourage team members to connect.

One key to success is to ask the team how they want to cultivate their relationships, such as lunch/potlucks, newsletter highlights, online games, activities, or volunteer possibilities outside of work. Taking the time to truly listen makes a significant difference in team chemistry.

For Employees: It takes 2 to tango, If the leader is willing and you are not willing to cooperate, you won’t achieve the goal, so here are some things you can do to promote psychological safety:

Employees can focus on finding answers by asking, “What can we all do to help fix this problem?”
Ask your colleagues for their thoughts—with inquiries like “I would love your feedback on that notion.”
Actively listen to your coworkers’ thoughts and ask cordial questions.
Show respect and consideration when team members share ideas, even if you disagree with them.
Provide comments in a polite, thoughtful manner.

Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Psychological safety at work is an accepted belief among team members that they will not be embarrassed, rejected, or penalized for sharing ideas, taking risks, or receiving feedback.

It is important to practice psychological safety at work because it affects the organization’s progress and growth. A higher level of psychological safety allows the contributions of all people in the organization and ensures that the organization makes proper preparations to avoid failure. A proper organization should make sure every employee goes through the 4 stages of psychological safety. Eventually, they will have quality employees which will fasten the growth of any organization.

When psychological safety at work is inadequate, people will be uncomfortable reporting concerns. This will lead to reoccurring mistakes and the company will be unable to prevent failure.

Benefits of Psychological Safety

There are multiple benefits of psychological safety, including:

Fewer errors and occurrences.
Mistakes and mishaps have less influence.
More ideas.
Increased freedom to test innovate and improve ideas
Faster delivery and time to market
Reduced burnout.
Increased inclusiveness and diversity.
Improved individuals’ ability to learn from their mistakes
Improved group learning and experimentation, reducing the possibility of “intelligent failures.”
Reduced security, safety, and noncompliance issues
Lower employee turnover.
Improved reputation and ability to recruit top talent.
Increased resilience of individuals and teams

If people do not feel comfortable disclosing or discussing difficulties, mistakes, or failures, they will remain buried. This removes any potential learning, maybe makes the problem worse, increases the impact, and generates more incidents.

Psychological Safety pdf

As always there’s only so much, I can say in a generalized version about psychological safety. There is a book written by Timothy R. Clark named “The Four Stages of Psychological Safety”, where he spoke in detail about Psychological Safety. To get the pdf, Click here.

Conclusion

Soila’s supervisor should not have felt threatened and calling her out was unethical. Sadly, it happens in a lot of organizations which stands to deter the growth of the company. When people feel psychologically safe, they won’t be worried about getting rejected or punished for speaking up. Also, it creates a healthy working environment and can serve as a boost to employee’s morale when they know that they are making an impact in their place of work.

What is Psychological Safety: All you Need to Know!

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Key Takeaways

What is Psychological Safety?