Psychological Safety at Work

This morning, along with my coffee, I consumed the 2019 Harvard Business Review article, The Psychology Behind Unethical Behavior , by Merete Wedell-Wedellsborg. It explores three psychological dynamics that can lead to crossing ethical lines. It goes on to outline what leaders can do about them. The suggestions, to my perspective, were centered around keen observation, introspection, and cultural anchors to prevent wading into unethical territory. I think the article is a good read for leaders and those that coach leaders. As I read the end of the article, I wondered what it might imply about psychological safety in the workplace.

The article begins with the story of a team, CEO at the helm, attending a team dinner at a public establishment. The CEO engages in some egotist behavior, complaining about the seating and view. The team first attempts to ignore and move on, yet the CEO persists. With tension building at the table, a team member contributes to the bad behavior. At the end of the story, the author asks, “what would you do in this situation?” and I immediately thought, “well it depends.”

In the workplace, psychological safety is the shared belief that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks in a group and as a group. These risks can include speaking up when there is a concern with team dynamics or individual behavior, a willingness to share ideas and take creative risks, or the capability to be themselves in the workplace. Knowing risk-taking is safe is based on how the organization, team, and colleagues respond. If taking interpersonal risks are consistently met with ridicule and other adverse outcomes for the risk-taker, that behavior will be engaged less often, not just by that individual but also across other individuals that witness the negative response. This aversion to interpersonal risk-taking can eventually permeate through the team or the entire organization. These are the kind of situations that illuminate the true nature of a team’s values and culture.

The scenario presented in the HBR article seems to be a team that does not believe they have psychological safety to “do the right thing.” Speaking up could mean being ridiculed in public by a leader who expects to get their way. Do they fear negative repercussions on the job if they call out the boss in public? Do they feel they can address the CEO to discuss the behavior? Is there a workplace cultural anchor or value they can lean on to express the issues at the table?

Stages of Psychological Safety

According to Dr. Timothy Clark, author of The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation, employees have to progress through the four stages before they feel safe to make valuable contributions and challenge the status quo.

1. Inclusion Safety allows employees can feel safe to be themselves fully at work and be accepted.
2. Learner Safety will enable employees to feel safe to exchange during the learning process, asking questions, giving and receiving feedback, experimenting, and making mistakes.
3. Contributor safety allows employees to feel safe using their skills and abilities to make meaningful contributions.
4. Challenger safety will enable employees to feel safe speaking up and challenging the status quo when an opportunity to change or improve things presents itself.

Five Ways to Cultivate A Psychologically Safe Work Environment

Here are five ways team leaders can cultivate a psychologically safe work environment, support their team through the four stages of safety, and allow space for interpersonal risk-taking to improve the team and organization.

• Recognize safe is not the same as comfortable, and disagreement is not an attack. Safety is about removing danger or harm. Yes, feedback can sting a bit, sharing new or half-baked ideas can feel scary, and conflict can make some feel defensive; but those feelings are not dangerous or harmful. A psychologically safe workplace is not about comfort to avoid feeling vulnerable. It should ensure vulnerability and risk-taking do not lead to detrimental outcomes such as harsh feedback without empathy, ridicule, being dismissed or minimized, or worse, being ostracized, retaliated against, or have their job or position threatened.
• Involve the team in setting expectations and behaviors for factors that contribute to psychological safety. Talk with your team about your desire to create a working relationship that is inclusive and safe for everyone to explore, innovate, and improve. Discuss openly and honestly what behaviors and expectations you all will commit to going forward and those you all will shed for the team’s benefit; this includes committing to holding each other accountable. How will you engage when someone seems to be violating these norms? Work these out together as a team, document them, refer to them regularly, and ask “how did we do” at the end of team interactions.
• Set the tone and be the model. The team leader must consistently demonstrate their commitment to psychological safety by modeling the behaviors and setting the tone at the top of each interaction as a reminder of the team’s commitment. An exciting way I suggest leaders start is to be introspective and call themselves out openly; also, ask for feedback as much as they offer it out.
• Learn and teach how to give and receive feedback. Feedback must be anchored in observable behavior and presented promptly to be most effective. As a team, learn what constitutes actionable, valuable feedback specific to the work and associated outcomes.
• Open the lines of communication in all directions. Ensure there are various pathways and modalities of communications up, down, and across the organization, including channels for feedback. As a leader, encourage the conversation in all those directions. Building channels for team members to communicate up the hierarchy creates the opportunity for employees to challenge the status quo, expose issues and opportunities for improvement, and offer ideas that can improve the team, organization, and business. However, feeling heard and responded to reinforces a relationship of trust that builds psychological safety. Respond candidly to those employee engagement surveys. Create anonymous channels, as appropriate, that provide a safe place for employees to share, ask, and challenge. Hold skip-level meetings and one-on-ones where you, as a leader, can ask for feedback or share how you have responded to feedback previously offered.

Developing a psychologically safe environment is essential for the growth of any team or organization and the development of each individual. Feeling included, safe to engage in interpersonal risk-taking, and supported in exploring, sharing, or even failing fosters a work environment that is more collaborative, innovative, and less likely to tolerate unethical behavior from anyone.

About The Author

LaTanya Walker is a consultant whom emphasizes the value of managed organizational change and the alignment of people, processes, and systems to build effective teams and organizations. With over 20 years of experience in project management, change management, and organizational effectiveness, LaTanya has the expertise to support organizations through transformational change.

Originally published at https://www.wyld.work on February 2, 2022.