Teams thrive when they experience psychological safety

We’ve all experienced workplaces and teams that drain us, de-motivate us, and generally leave us scrambling to get out as soon as possible. We’ve also experienced workplaces and teams that are inspiring, exciting, and leave us feeling like we never want to leave work (but you definitely should, because that self-care is important and work isn’t everything).

What is the difference between these two extremes (and the wide range of experiences in between)? Can we identify what makes a team feel successful, well-managed, and effective? Or why a team sometimes feels uninspiring, messy, and just… blah? Researchers at Google spent time coming up with an answer; and though the research dates from 2015, it remains relevant in today’s world.

It was surprising to many that the top dynamic that made teams and workplaces successful was psychological safety. This concept was loosely defined by Google as “team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other.” To me, it makes perfect sense. Folks need to feel comfortable at work and with their colleagues; they need to feel that they can be their authentic selves, bring their ideas to the table, and have their experiences and perspectives valued, acknowledged, and listened to. This helps folks feel more connected to each other and to the organisation and allows for more productive and engaging teamwork to flourish.

However, psychological safety takes work and it’s unfortunate that many places don’t want to put in the time, effort, and resources it takes to create this kind of space. In many workplaces, staff are pitted in competition against each other, individual contributions are valued more than collaborative teamwork, and people are expected to deal with whatever issues might exist in the space. Often folks are further marginalized, ignored, or dismissed when advocating for more psychological safety.

Psychological safety is much more than just feeling comfortable at work; it means feeling valued, heard, respected, acknowledged, validated and seen. It doesn’t mean everything we do or say is immediately implemented or showered with praise; but it does mean we can raise our ideas, questions, concerns, and feedback without fear of reprisal, or fear that it will be held against us later.

Psychological safety can look like any and all of the following (of course, there are an infinite number of examples!):

·      I can wear clothes congruent with my gender identity/expression without negative comments/looks from others

·      I can ask for help from others without being seen as needy, incapable, or incompetent

·      I can be reasonable assured that I won’t be subject to sexist, racist, heterosexist, ableist, classist, etc language/behaviors in the workplace

·      I can raise concerns without being seen as a troublemaker

·      I can share new ideas that go against the dominant way of doing things and have them seriously discussed and listened to

·      I can talk about my same-gender partner openly

·      I can disagree with someone more senior than me without facing repercussions

·      I can expect to be taken seriously if I bring up a complaint about workplace harassment, bullying, sexual harassment or other mistreatment

·      I can make mistakes and am held accountable to them without being shamed for them

·      I can make mistakes and not have it be seen as a confirmation of a stereotype about my race or gender

The list can go on and on and on, but this gives a sense of the types of things that psychological safety encompasses. Creating psychological safety can be seen as both an individual and a cultural/collective endeavor. Individual staff members can encourage collaboration, ask others for their ideas, and monitor their own language & behaviors for inclusivity. Collectively, organisations can build a culture that encourage providing feedback, speaking out and speaking up, and true inclusion.

Organisations should want staff to feel psychologically safe – it increases happiness and retention at work, encourages folks to comfortably name what isn’t working, and enhances inclusion efforts. Keep in mind that psychologically safe doesn’t mean people are comfortable at all times and all conflict is avoided; it’s actually the opposite. A safe environment is one in which folks can process and engage with conflict in a way that is generative and useful. Teams should feel comfortable to provide constructive and useful feedback for one another and develop conflict resolution skills. If this isn’t done, resentment festers, and this leads to things like rumor mills, office gossip, and staff constantly one-upping each other.

Great, that’s all well and good, but how do I do it? VALID QUESTION!

Below I’ve summarized some of the outcomes that are suggested more in-depth here, here, and here:

·      Facilitate speaking up – create a culture in which folks are comfortable to challenge dominant norms, especially within a hierarchy. This also includes making sure that all team members feel empowered to contribute to conversations. Creating this sense of ownership and safety can be done through developing trust, listening attentively to all staff, and reducing any possibilities of retaliation as much as possible.

·      Establish norms for how conflict & failure are handled – talk as a team about how you like to handle conflict. Come up with standards and norms that folks are all agreeable on and make sure that every team member contributes to this conversation. That way, everyone has something to rely on when conflict does (inevitably) arise. With failure, ask different questions if something goes awry (i.e., “what circumstances led to this?” instead of “who is responsible for this?”)

·      Encourage and create space for new ideas – don’t get locked into the “we’ve always done it this way” curse. Break free! Ask people for wild, new ideas and seriously consider them. Ask people “how would you design this event/program/process from scratch?” It can be helpful to adapt a mindset that says all things are in a constant state of growth and development. Nothing is set in stone.

·      Embrace conflict – Conflict is normal and natural. When working together, inevitably there will be clashes of ideas, personalities, and priorities. Nothing wrong with this; but it is wrong to let conflict fester without resolution. Talk openly with teams about their preferences for handling conflicts and aim for win-win resolutions. Avoiding or ignoring conflict will almost certainly lead to growing resentment, which can lead to resignations, de-motivation, and disinterest in the organisation.

·      Recognise universal needs and everyone’s humanity – Most folks can empathise with the notion that we want to be heard and valued. In a work setting, we can sometimes forget that. Psychological safety can be enhanced when we allow for folks to be human (i.e., make mistakes, be angry or upset, have a bad day, etc) and not penalize them for it. Everyone has an interest in being respected at work, perceived as competent, and having some (or complete!) autonomy over their work; these aspects shouldn’t be relegated solely to those more senior in the hierarchy.

·      Move away from blame – Things go wrong, mistakes get made, it happens! Ask insightful and useful questions instead of figuring out who to blame for issues. In a psychologically safe workplace, folks who make mistakes will come forward willingly with them anyway, because they know it can be discussed in a way that won’t shame or belittle them. Potential/alleged mistakes can be framed as observations (“I noticed your participation in our meetings has decreased the past 2 weeks”) or questions (“Do you have any feedback on our meetings? I noticed you’d been engaging less and want to make sure you are feeling comfortable!”).

·      Assess and then assess again… and then maybe one more time – Too often, we might assume psychological safety exists because we haven’t heard that it doesn’t. This is a dangerous path that is laden with assumptions, which can lead to situations being interpreted incorrectly. You can do things like staff surveys to find out if folks are feeling safe or bringing it up during one-on-ones with your team. If you can establish a baseline first, you’ll know if you are doing better!

The above items aren’t easy (and the list is certainly not comprehensive) but they are necessary. As can be seen through my examples listed above, psychological safety is also a diversity & inclusion issue. Folks who have marginalized identities (such as women, trans folks, LGBTQ people, racial minorities, those with disabilities, etc) are more likely to experience a lack of psychological safety in the workplace. Safety is going to look different for all of us, so frequent and empathetic conversations with your teams are necessary.

Look at it from every person on your teams’ perspectives. What is needed for psychological safety for someone who is the only women on a committee full of men? What is needed for the staff member who is a fresh grad and also non-binary? How does a racial minority experience your organisation, where none of the senior management may look like them?

There is a lot to consider and it might seem overwhelming to think about! Remember the research we started with – psychological safety was considered the MOST IMPORTANT factor in successful and effective teams. This cannot be stressed enough. And it’s not going to create itself- it needs to be done intentionally, thoughtfully and with integrity.