Psychological Safety Part 1: Does it really matter?
Why am I hearing so much about psychological safety lately?
The rising prominence of psychological safety has generated considerable buzz lately. This frequently asked question is one of the most common questions we are asked.
Psychological safety is vital to both individuals and the workplace. In this comprehensive four-part blog series, we aim to provide answers to the most pressing inquiries. As a bonus, we tackle a prevalent stumbling block in corporate training and development efforts that often hampers desired outcomes.
Our four-part blogs will address the following:
Psychological Safety: Does it really matter?
Psychological Safety: What are the 6 key benefits?
Psychological Safety: What are the 4 critical types?
Psychological Safety: Your 5 Step Roadmap
Consider a common scenario: You enthusiastically contribute to a team meeting, expecting your input to be recognized and valued. However, to your surprise, your ideas are misinterpreted, ignored, dismissed, or even criticized. The result? Feelings of being misunderstood, unappreciated, and left out – a feedback often heard from teams.
Why does this happen? Communication resembles the childhood game of "telephone," where a message gets distorted as it passes from person to person. Each individual interprets information through their unique filter, causing the intention and impact of communication to differ, sometimes drastically. Consequently, communication failures, frustrations, and conflicts arise, leading employees to feel misunderstood, unappreciated, disengaged, and excluded.
Recurring instances of such scenarios erode employees' sense of value. They begin perceiving their contributions as inconsequential and lose confidence in sharing their strengths. Over time, employees believe their input is disregarded and their contributions go unappreciated.
When employees are denied opportunities for growth, criticized for mistakes, discouraged from asking questions, and afraid to challenge the status quo, the consequences intensify. Employees withhold vital information about potential pitfalls, refrain from suggesting more efficient approaches, avoid seeking clarifications for fear of making errors, and withhold risk assessments or innovative ideas.
Ultimately, employees withhold their greatest value, experience a sense of not belonging, fear learning, and withhold innovative ideas. This absence of psychological safety leads to disengagement, nowadays referred to as "quiet quitting."
The impact of disengagement should not be underestimated. It spreads throughout an organization, much like termites silently eroding the foundation of a building impacting it’s ability to effectively support the mission.
When employees are not fully engaged, the organization loses the opportunity to leverage the individual strengths and combined talents of their employees and teams. Gallup defines employee engagement, not as employee happiness, but specifically as “the involvement and enthusiasm of employees in their work and workplace.” Are employees going through the motions or are they enthusiastic to contribute their best work?
Sadly only 35% of US employees are engaged and 15% are actively disengaged. What does this mean? The data for engagement can be summarized in this way: If you have a crew of 20 rowing a boat: 7 are rowing with enthusiasm and investment in the outcome, 10 are going through the motions without engagement in the effort or outcome, and 3 are actively trying to sink the boat. What impact do you see this having on your organization?
Dr. Amy Edmonson coined the term “psychological safety” and defines psychological safety as,
“an environment in which people believe they can speak up candidly with ideas, questions, concerns, and even mistakes - [it] is vital to leveraging the benefits of diversity, because it can help make inclusion a reality.”
Psychological safety refers to an inclusive culture where all employees feel empowered to contribute their value gifts, ideas, objections, and concerns. They are comfortable learning new skills, accepting that they may make mistakes without fear; they know their strengths and how to contribute to them successfully; they know their weaknesses and how to mitigate them without fear; they have permission to challenge the status quo, or even their leaders; and all feel they belong and contribute.
The center for creative leadership states,
“It’s a shared belief held by members of a team that others on the team will not embarrass, reject, or punish them for speaking up.”
Far from a woo-woo fad, Psychological Safety is about empowering authenticity. Now the question is - does your organization have a problem with psychological safety?
Do your employees feel safe to contribute? To challenge you? To learn without fear?
Unless leaders and employees know their strengths, have learned to communicate interdependently and have productive conflict, while intentionally practicing the four types of psychological safety, the answer to these questions is likely to be “no.”
Based on this information, our hope is that you see how crucial it is to cultivating psychological safety.
Do you believe your organization could benefit from empowered Psychological Safety? If you desire to dig deeper, read our second blog in this series where we outline the 6 key benefits of creating organizational psychological safety.
We specialize in helping teams and organizations understand and implement practices that cultivate the power of interdependence.
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