Team psychological safety in the workplace plays an essential role in creating a healthy culture.
The term was first coined by psychologist Carl Rogers in the 1950s, and the concept of team psychological safety was developed by Amy Edmonson, a Harvard Business School professor and author of The Fearless Organisation. Team psychological safety means an environment where people can speak up freely, to express ideas, admit mistakes and ask questions, without fear of any kind of negative consequence.
This environment not only keeps employees safe, but also helps foster innovation and creativity as people are free to speak up and share their ideas. It also means mistakes are reported quickly, with no fear.
Recognising a psychologically safe workplace
Imagine if the Post Office had had a culture of team psychological safety when people were reporting problems with the Horizon IT system. They might have been listened to, believed, and problems investigated sooner. Or at Harrods, where the horrific abuse by Mohammed al Fayed went unchecked for years, with survivors marginalised, set aside or losing their jobs when they tried to speak up.
This is something we’ve looked at on the Polpeo podcast What Just Happened?, where we were lucky enough to be joined by the amazing employee engagement expert, Ann-Marie Blake. We talked about what leaders can actively do to create a culture which prioritises psychological safety. Some of Ann-Marie’s pointers included:
- Assess where the culture is now. Are people feeling safe? Do employees ask questions when invited to in meetings and Town Hall settings? Do they feel confident enough to ask challenging questions? Do they freely share their ideas? These can be good indicators of how secure people feel around their coworkers and leadership. If they don’t speak up, that could indicate a culture where they don’t feel safe to do so.
- Talk to employees. Leaders can get a much better understanding of what’s going on in all areas of the business if they get out and talk to the people working for it. Ann-Marie recommended an open question to find out what’s going on in the organisation and how people really feel about things. And if leaders build a relationship with their teams, colleagues will feel more confident in approaching them when they need to raise an issue.
- Be aware of the “say-do gap”. As Ann-Marie explained on the podcast, sometimes there can be a gap between what leaders say and what they do. This can create a level of distrust – people need to see action after they have been brave enough to air a concern.
- Be mindful of the power dynamics. Ann-Marie points out that when a leader shares an opinion and then asks the team for their views, it’s hard for anyone to go against the opinion of someone senior to them. If you give space to team members to offer their views or suggestions first, you’ll get a much better picture of what people really think.
To hear more about how to create team psychological safety, listen to Culture of Fear: Lessons from the Harrods Abuse Scandal.
