71 What is Psychological Safety and how does it help support change?

As we look to ‘set the scene’ for problem solving, we are keen to explore the environment or context you operate within in some detail to determine cultural readiness for change and innovation. One of the great insights from psychology in recent times is that sustained team performance will only be possible in an environment where strong team capability is coupled with a culture that allows team members to flourish both professionally and personally.

This means that regardless of the seniority of your role in the team, or of your own personal talent, you should feel confident that everyone has a legitimate contribution to make. In some environments this is based on a ground rule that ‘talent can-not override culture’.

So why is this idea so important to high performance environments? Surely it is ok for more senior people to take the lead on decisions or strategies for the team and for juniors to do what they are told by the leader?

In simple terms, if you feel psychologically safe, you are more likely to ask questions, share thoughts openly and perhaps most importantly, raise your concerns and worries about issues in the team as they emerge. This is critically important when seeking to problem solve or apply critical reasoning to issues at work. If you feel safe to challenge how things are, you are much more likely to generate ideas for change and transformation.

Interestingly, the idea of psychological safety is often better explored by thinking of the consequences if it doesn’t exist!  Perhaps you are new to a team but concerned that the way the team is performing certain tasks is out of date. You want to share your thoughts, but you have observed the way other new team members are belittled or ridiculed when speaking up.  Or perhaps you have observed that some team members hold more social power than others and seem to be heard more readily in meetings.

According to the research work of Amy Edmondson, absence of psychological safety within a team will result in covering up of errors and mistakes; a reluctance to innovate or try new things and ultimately, a culture of anxiety and fear.¹

^{It goes without saying that in a high-stakes or high pressure environment, this sense of anxiety or not speaking up can have dire consequences for a team.}

Iain Gair, a British psychologist, believes there are behaviours that teams can engender to promote risk-taking and psychological safety.²

Some of these are……..

In your journal, reflect on these elements that engender psychological safety and consider your own work team or another team you are a part of.  Which are you seeing as positive within the team and which areas could use a little more work?

Now you have considered your own work team and the idea of psychological safety it would be useful to hear from the world authority in this area.

Professor Amy Edmondson’s TED talk about psychological safety and think about its application to your own work team.

In your journal reflect on the following questions….

When have you not spoken up in a team or group situation even when you had something useful to say?

How does social power ‘play out’ in the teams that you are a part of?

If you are interested in exploring this idea of team safety further, watch Simon Sinek’s TED talk where he explains how good leaders make people in their teams safe.

1. Edmondson, A. (2019) The fearless organization: creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation and growth. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley.
2. Gair, I. (2019) Psychological Safety Promotes Collaboration and Risk Taking, Sports Resilience,  Retrieved June 10, 2020 from https://sportresilience.com/psychological-safety-collaboration-risk-taking/