When people don’t feel safe, they’re not inclined to take risks. They may see opportunities to improve things or have differing ideas on how to approach a problem. But if the thought of stepping forward creates a sense of danger, most people are going to think twice. This means hindered development, both for the company and for the team members.
So how can your organization better promote psychological safety at work? suggest taking the following approaches:
- Create Rules Of Engagement
Create and define the rules of engagement to clarify what the expected behaviors are for everyone. Then honor the rules at all levels of the organization, regardless of the person’s title. Encourage open dialogue between individuals in an attempt to resolve the issue. If that doesn’t work, then ask a third party to intervene. –
- Take Action And Confront The Behavior
If there is a culprit who is threatening the psychological safety in the culture, immediate intervention needs to take place. There are subtle ways to undermine co-workers that can be threatening and cause distress. Addressing the behavior and trying to understand the root cause can often lead to solving the issue. The message to the culture is that any bullying behavior will not be tolerated. –
- Educate Key Staff And Leaders About Mental Health First Aid
Stress leaves are becoming commonplace. Thankfully, we are becoming more comfortable talking about the impact of stress with each other. The key is prevention through education in the community and in the workplace. Certify key staff and leaders in mental health first aid courses prior to building and implementing a peer mentorship program in order to create a positive workplace culture.
- Engage Through Generative Dialogue
Generative dialogue is a useful tool that can help create safety for your team. Imagine conversations where there are no “winners” or “losers,” where different points of view can be held without having to protect, defend or even agree. Now, imagine the positive impact to your bottom line as you, your team and your organization engage more deeply, communicate more clearly and innovate more creatively.
- Embrace Radical Candor
Adapting a company’s communications culture to one of radical candor is key. I’m a huge advocate of Kim Scott’s book Radical Candor and believe her model can be the bedrock for management and employees of a company to create a safe culture of communication, one where people can do their best work without fear.
- Adopt A Learning Mindset
It is human nature to find fault when a mistake happens. But criticism leads to defensiveness, and no employee will feel safe to take risks if they’re afraid to be punished by their leader if they fail. Instead, adopt a learning mindset, where you engage through coaching questions to problem-solve and learn after a mistake is made. By eliminating the fear of blame, you create a culture of safety.
- Bring Employees Together
In a digitally connected work environment, go out of your way to create opportunities for employees to come together, face-to-face. Create structured team experiences that allow employees to take risks, trust each other, make mistakes and realize it’s OK. By doing this in a “practice” setting, employees will become aware of — and more assured of — organizational support of risk-taking.
- Develop Their Mental Toughness
Mental toughness largely determines how people respond to challenge, stress and pressure, and is closely related to resilience and grit. By developing your team’s mental toughness, you will help them respond more positively to challenge, deal with adversity and setbacks with greater confidence, see opportunity where others see problems and enjoy greater well being.
- Promote Responsibility
Promote employees taking responsibility for their own psychological safety. Start with the example of leadership and management. Make resources available for those who need them.
- Encourage Compassion
Organizations should start by creating an environment where it is obvious that showing compassion for others is appreciated. When you truly care for others, it is easier for them to feel safe, more creative and more engaged.
- Focus On Being Trustworthy
Trust is the foundation of a safe environment, where individuals and teams can perform at their best. Without trust, people will engage in political behavior in an act of self-preservation, which wastes energy, time and money. The key thing to remember is that trust is earned, so focus the leadership in your organization on what they are doing to demonstrate that they are trustworthy.
- Promote And Cultivate Mindsets That Value Listening And Diversity
Psychological safety at work is impossible as long as peers and bosses celebrate sameness, and feel threatened by opposing voices or differences in points-of-view. The most effective way of eliminating this threat is to promote and cultivate mindsets that truly value listening and diversity. Because when people are given a voice, when they are genuinely heard, then they will feel worthy and safe.
- Practice Positive Feedback
Practice positive feedback, not “as a pat on the back,” but as providing specific data, including describing the value that an action had and celebrating the individual. Positive feedback is the opposite of “no news, good news” or the unspoken expectation that doing well at one’s job is part of doing one’s job. Psychological safety starts with confidence that “others appreciate what I bring, as well as value and respect me.
- Value People More Than Processes
Organizations are a collection of humans working for a common purpose. Lean into this truth by exercising trust, active listening, compassion and empathy. Communicate human-to-human instead of role-to-role. Acknowledge conflicts with curiosity instead of judgment. Choose people more than processes. Connect with your shared purpose both at the height of success and in the valley of challenge.