Inclusive Workplace Culture: The Power of Psychological Safety
What it is, what it is not, and what strategies can be used to build it into a workplace culture
To be your true self at work, it means you bring your true ideas, perceptions, challenges, or opinions. A company that fosters an environment of psychological safety at work enables each employee to bring their true self, allowing them to voice their perspectives, disagree comfortably, provide more meaningful feedback, and build trust within the organization.
Earlier this month, I ran an interactive session at Venture Cafe Philadelphia’s Thursday Gathering where attendees learned what psychological safety is, what it is not, and what strategies can be used to build it into a workplace culture.
You can view my slides here, and I’ve captured my key points below.
What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking (thanks, Amy Edmondson!).
Psychologically safe teams trust each other to experiment without judgement, voice opinions without being shamed, and fail without being labeled a failure.
In other words, it’s an interpersonal environment where people believe their voice is welcome.
Psychologically safety is not about being nice or feeling cozy. It involves being open, being direct, taking risks, owning mistakes, asking for help, and building trust.
What are the benefits of psychological safety at work?
In the U.S., only 30% of people think their opinions matter at work.
Companies who boost that to 60% can improve productivity by 12%, reduce turnover by 27%, and reduce safety incidents by 40% (source).
A psychologically safe work environment leads to:
- Higher team performance
- Improved retention
- Increased innovation and creativity
- Higher revenues
- Higher quality
- A better place to work
How can leaders create psychological safety among their teams?
- Model the acceptance of fallibility — team members are more comfortable failing when they see their leaders are comfortable sharing their own failures.
- Ask for input and feedback —when having a touch conversation, asking questions like “did I communicate that clearly?” or “how could I have shared that differently?” can help you improve your own communication.
- Approach conflict as a collaborator, not an adversary — rather than being defensive, focus on the root cause of the conflict and how to objectively approach a resolution.
- Replace blame with curiosity — people make mistakes; focusing on ideas to improve and error-proof a process can turn a mistake into a win.
- Speak human to human — at the end of the day, regardless of title, role, or level, we are all human and can relate to each other on a personal level.
- Measure psychological safety —by measuring, you can improve.
How can you create your own psychological safety at work?
- Change your internal dialogue about failure — we’re programmed through our schooling to think of failure as not being intelligent enough or not working hard enough. However, innovation and creativity require experimentation, and embedded in experimentation is failure. Failure is necessary, good, and should be encouraged to promote innovation and creativity!
- Adopt a learning mindset — approach conflicts, mistakes, and gaps in communication as learning opportunities to improve the processes in which you operate without taking things personally.
- Build authentic relationships with your colleagues — knowing each other as real people makes difficult conversations easier and more impactful.
- Confront tough conversations with a plan — think about how the other person will receive and react to what you need to say and plan how you communicate it accordingly.
- Admit to your mistakes — if you don’t admit to yours, others won’t admit to theirs! This is key in building trust with those around you.
- Ask for feedback — you won’t know how others truly perceive you and your work unless you ask.
Links to additional resources:
- Psychological Safety: The Key to High-Performing Teams from Officevibe
- How to Cultivate Psychological Safety for Your Team, According to Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson from Hubspot
- Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace from Harvard Business Review
- Psychological Safety First: Building Trust Among Teams from Slack
- The Five Keys to a Successful Google Team from Google
