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We all may suffer from stress at work from time to time.  But what makes one workplace so much more stressful than another?  And what can be done to improve it?  Understanding what psychological safety is, how we can recognise it and foster it is a useful starting point.

So what is psychological safety in the workplace?

Psychological safety is “the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.” – Amy C. Edmondson. 

Psychological safety is:

• Being able to share concerns and mistakes without the fear of embarrassment or negative consequence
• Feeling comfortable to be yourself and to express yourself.
• Being confident you can speak up without being ignored, blamed or humiliated
• Trusting and respecting your colleagues
• Being able to ask questions if you are unsure
• Knowing mistakes are welcomed as a learning opportunity and not shamed
• Being able to speak your truth and know your opinion counts
• Being able to report mistakes quickly so solutions can be found
• Knowing that if you don’t reach targets you won’t be shamed for this.

When there isn’t psychological safety people may feel;

• Scared of being wrong
• Unable to work to their full potential
• Fearful of offending the boss
• Scared of saying something that might make them look bad
• People won’t share creative ideas
• People won’t take risks
• People don’t believe they are good enough
• Shame and not valued

Why Psychological safety is important?

Lots of big businesses and organisations take it very seriously.

For example, one such organisation is NASA. In 2003 the space shuttle Columbia failed and all 7 crew members tragically died.  When NASA looked into what happened they found that there was an engineer who prior to the launch had safety concerns that had they been properly raised could have avoided the tragedy.  However, the engineer felt discouraged from sharing this with senior staff.  When asked why he didn’t share his concerns he stated ‘I just couldn’t.’ He explained that he was to low down in the hierarchy at NASA to be listened to.

Following the disaster NASA looked into organisational structures and changed things so there was a culture of psychological safety so that people felt able to speak up.

Another example is Google.  In 2016 Google published the results of Project Aristotle, a two year study to discover what makes a great team.  Based on the research from 180 teams, psychological safety was the most important factor in creating high performing teams.

They found:

• If we don’t feel safe are brains don’t work as well and we won’t perform to our best ability.

• It reduces accidents and mistakes – if people feel free to admit mistakes without being punished then they actually make fewer mistakes.

• It boosts productivity – people share ideas and concerns

• It improves employee retention

How to assess whether your workplace has psychological safety 

• Are people only bringing positive achievements to leaders? – Or are members bringing up mistakes, problems and tough issues.
• Do team members accept others are different?
• Do the team members share mistakes they have made – including leaders?

How we can encourage a culture of psychological safety in the work place 

A lot of good management practises help create this.

For example:

• Role clarity
• Peer support
• Interdependence -working together
• a sense of predictability
• fairness
• humility when people do speak up
• encouraging open communication
• Active listening –Show you understand and that you have heard them – this isn’t saying you have to agree with them but perhaps responding with something like “what I heard you say is…. Have I heard that right?”

• Praise – notice when things go well and praise them for it, share that with other staff
• Be open to feedback and replace blame with curiosity
• Show your own vulnerabilities – not necessarily sharing your deepest darkest secrets but make it normal to admit when you make mistakes and model learning and correcting from this experience, show you are open to feedback and that you will take risks.
• Plan to include employees voices – have it built in to meetings and reviews – What do you think about this new project? What are your concerns?

Simply put psychological safety at work means happier staff and a better business!