This is how we built psychological safety in our team — Part 2
by Faye Koukia-Koutelaki, User Research Consultant
This is the second part of my 2-part blog post series on psychological safety for user researchers. In part one, I shared how I identified the problem and used a design thinking approach to identify quick wins and user needs. Here, I share how I set up a peer support group.
As a counselling psychologist in Greece, I was part of an extremely helpful and supportive peer supervision group. The group gave me a safe space to share my thoughts, feelings, and concerns on how I handled a session with a client. It was also a place where I could get a different viewpoint on situations I was struggling with. It gave me the inspiration to create a peer support group for user researchers at Kainos.
The rules of the new peer support group call are simple:
1) Grab a hot drink and join — if you want!
2) Be respectful
3) Remember that the call is confidential; what happens on the call, stays on the call — group members should never share anything discussed outside of it
With these rules in place, the call became our safe space. A space where we feel able to share our frustrations, ask for advice or get an alternative view.
Of course, psychological safety doesn’t come in a day. We did not start sharing our deepest thoughts and feelings on the first call. Safety is like trust; it takes time to build and is very easy to lose.
So, we gave the call time to simmer. Time for user researchers to get close to each other, learn about one another, and truly connect. Working all over the country, with many of us never having met either in person or online, this was something we found extremely valuable.
Over time, the support group became a truly safe place for us. Yes, our conversations often revolve around the tastiest donut or sausage roll in the country. But we are also able to touch on very sensitive topics and be there for colleagues who feel overwhelmed. We’ve had laughs and we’ve had tears. We’ve expressed frustrations, anger and disappointments. But we’ve also shared so much gratitude and excitement in these weekly calls, too. The feedback my colleagues share with me for creating this ‘safe space’ week after week is overwhelmingly positive.
An ongoing effort — iterating and improving the support group
Of course, our journey did not end there. We quickly identified a need to raise issues anonymously within the group too. So, we created an anonymous form that attendees can use if they want to discuss an issue, but do not want to raise it themselves (the link is included in the meeting invite). I make sure to check the form before every support group call and bring up any issues that have been submitted. So far, it’s only been used once. Most attendees feel comfortable to raising any topics in the open. I like to think that’s a testament to the work we’ve all done to build this trust as a team.
As we continue to iterate and improve, our next step is to define processes for dealing with any sensitive information shared in the group that needs to be actioned.
Over to you — how can you create psychological safety in your workplace?
Creating this safe space for people to come together has been one of my biggest and proudest achievements of the past year. It’s one that I feel brings me closer to becoming the leader I aspire to be. And it’s also something that I know would continue to benefit my colleagues and Kainos, even if I left tomorrow.
So, I’ll leave you with this. If you think your team may not be feeling very psychologically safe, if they never tend to share what’s not working as well as it could — listen to their needs. Ask yourself, how can you give them a safe space and the time to get to know each other and feel comfortable sharing more?
Maybe a weekly drop-in call where they can better connect with the team will be your answer.
PS: I want to thank all my colleagues who got involved in this project and played a role in bringing to life our UR support call, and the UR community in Kainos for being open and being there.
