The Importance of Psychological Safety

It has been a pretty wild year with the disruption of Covid-19 and adapting to changes in our lives, both personal and professional. We feel the timing more than ever is right to talk about the psychological safety in the workplace.

It is important we start with what motivates us. This will help give context of the impacts of psychological safety. So, what motivates us?

Intrinsic Motivation

The three things that motivate creative people—mastery, purpose, and autonomy.

Mastery

• Mastery of the right:
  • Competencies
  • Experience
  • Tasks
  • Support
• i.e. Domain Knowledge
• i.e. Process Knowledge

Purpose

• Values & Principles for:
  • Me
  • Deliverable/task
  • Team
  • Company

Autonomy

• Delegation
• No micro-management
• Paved road
• Manage my own time
• Outcomes / KPIs

What is Psychological Safety

The concept of psychological safety in the workplace was first identified by organizational behavioral scientist, Amy Edmondson in 1999 in her paper entitled “Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams.” Her research found that companies with a trusting workplace performed better. 

“Feeling safe, secure and being able to work without the fear of negative consequences, even when you make a mistake, relies on feeling psychologically safe.

It means people are comfortable being themselves. In psychologically safe  workplaces, diversity is respected and personal risk-taking is encouraged. Above all, team members respect each other and feel accepted. The feeling is like taking a leap and knowing you’ll be caught”

Why is Psychological Safety Important?

Make Safety a Prerequisite

• Safety is both a basic human need and a key to unlocking high performance
• We actively make safety a prerequisite by establishing safety before engaging in any hazardous work
• We protect people’s time, information, reputation, money, health and relationships
• And we endeavor to make our collaborations, products and services resilient and safe

Feeling safe, secure and being able to work without the fear of negative consequences, even when you make a mistake, relies on feeling psychologically safe. It means people are comfortable being themselves. In psychologically safe workplaces, diversity is respected and personal risk-taking is encouraged. Above all, team members respect each other and feel accepted. The feeling is like taking a leap and knowing you’ll be caught.

Why is Psychological Safety Important in the Workplace?

• Positive emotions increase confidence, creativity, trust and productivity
• We become more open-minded, resilient, motivated, and persistent when we feel safe
• Increases solution-finding, divergent thinking and the cognitive process underlying creativity
• Without it we impede the ability for the team to think strategically, collaborate, ideate (share ideas)
• Humiliation, blame, criticism and bullying create workplaces where employees are filled with fear
• We spend needless amounts of time watching their own backs
• Frightened of putting a foot wrong to make suggestions and help each other out
• The team shuts down
• Increased stress due to lack of trust, respect or conflict we feel stressed
• When we feel stressed our brain triggers hormones to support a fight-or-flight response
• Continually being in that state is bad for our health. This state stifles creativity and teamwork

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