In a workplace, people are most productive and engaged when they feel psychologically safe. And to create this environment, it’s important to have a culture that focuses on safety and security.

But what is psychological safety? It is the perception of your environment where you are free from fear of emotional or psychological trauma. In other words, it’s the feeling of trust in your workplace.

Psychological safety in the workplace is achieved by promoting three things: transparency, understanding, and comfort. Transparency keeps everyone on the same page and allows for open dialogue without any risk of repercussions. Understanding establishes a sense of community and cultivates empathy for other employees’ work-related challenges. Finally, comfort sets the tone for an open discussion environment where people are encouraged to speak up and share their feelings with others.

1. Why Psychological Safety is Essential for Organizations?

When people feel safe, they are free to be themselves, share ideas, and take risks. Psychological safety is essential for organizations because it enables employees to feel confident and comfortable taking risks without feeling threatened or punished. Psychologically safety is beneficial for both the organization and its employees because it helps organizations to remain competitive and innovative while helping employees to make a greater contribution towards the organization’s success.

Ensuring psychological safety will require a three-level strategy. This strategy should include ensuring that psychological safety is ensured at the organizational level, at the managerial level, and at the peer-to-peer level.

2. At the organization level

In a study by Harvard Business Review, it was found that an environment of psychological safety is one where people feel they can share their thoughts and ideas without fear of ridicule. Psychological safety is the backbone of teamwork and collaboration.

A safe work environment is also essential to the mental health of employees. They need it to take risks, be creative, and make them productive. Organizations should pay attention to this because high morale means more retention rates.

In order to create a psychological safe environment in the office, there are a few steps to follow:

-Clearly communicate the company culture.

-Model psychological safety.

-Establish psychological safety as a core value for the organization.

3. At the level of managers

It is important for managers to be aware that due to the changes in modern society and technology, workplace dynamics are evolving faster than ever before. These changes often lead to more stressful work environments where employees feel like they’re being lost in the shuffle and don’t have a say in how the workplace is evolving.

Managers need to lead by example and make clear that it is okay to be vulnerable and admit mistakes. They should also ask for feedback and listen to it without acting like they are being attacked.

This is important because if a manager is not comfortable with being honest about their mistakes, the employees will always be nervous about whether they will get in trouble if they mess up.

Managers should not lead their teams into situations where there is no safety net. This means that they must establish psychological safety at work by ensuring that their team members are aware of the consequences of various actions so that the team feels secure in making decisions and taking risks without fear of ridicule or punishment from managers.

4. At the team level

Effective teams are composed of people who possess a variety of skills. There should be a mix of different personalities and opinions. These differences help the team explore new ideas and find solutions to problems without going in circles for hours on end. However, when there is no trust, teams may not be able to work together effectively.

There are two ways that a lack of trust can have negative effects on team performance:

1) Lack of trust means that members will be less likely to share information with the rest of the team. This means that members will not know what’s going on or have access to all the information needed for completing their tasks.

2) Teams need strong bonds between its members in order for them to work well together and achieve success. Trust is one of those key factors that builds this bond or “team spirit”.

The workplace is not a perfect place. There are always bound to be some conflicts and tensions among the team members. It is important for each member of the team to understand that they need to be supportive of others. This will help in resolving the conflicts in a much faster way and will also make the work environment more pleasant for everyone.

5. Case study example: Google’s Approach to Promoting Psychological Safety in their work Culture

Google is a company that has been around since 1998. They have pioneered the search engine business by developing their own algorithm called PageRank.

Google’s approach to ensuring psychological safety in their work culture is what many organizations can learn from. They focus on a few fundamental principles such as: be empathetic; show your emotions; don’t criticize people in front of others and be supportive when they talk about themselves.

In the end, Google’s approach to psychological safety in work culture leads to better-performing businesses and happier people.

6. Conclusion

It is hard to be productive or engaged when you are not feeling safe. A culture of safety and security fosters this in the workplace. Psychologically safe work environments make a more meaningful and sustainable impact on the company’s success. Make sure that the company culture is clearly communicated and demonstrate emotional support. Develop a sense of psychological safety by modelling it and establishing it as a core value for the organization.

Secondly, employees want to work for leaders they know will take their thoughts and ideas into consideration. Managers should not lead their teams into a situation without giving them the tools they need to be successful. Thirdly, team members need to be able to trust each other in order to work effectively. Without trust, team members may not be able to share vital information. Team spirit is a necessary component of teamwork. Without mutual trust, teams will have a harder time working together and completing projects.

There is no such thing as a completely conflict- and tension-free workplace. We’re all in this together. Engineering psychological safety is a must for any organization because it can help to develop your employees and keep them energized. It also will help your company’s competitiveness by keeping the team productive and happy.

Kognoz is a research and consulting company that specializes in understanding the human mind and psychological safety. It offers a wide range of services to help organizations create a safe environment by implementing the right policies and procedures as well as creating strong relationships between their employees.

References:

Clark, T. R. (2020). The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation (Illustrated ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Duhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html

Edmondson, A. C. (2018). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth (1st ed.). Wiley.