Strengthening Psychological Safety Across Differences
Most people find it difficult to admit to their boss they made a mistake. I know I do; it was much worse earlier in my career. I was ill-prepared to manage difficult conversations, especially with people I considered more senior than me, whether in expertise, education, or status. If we agree speaking up is difficult yet necessary, how can we help our staff deal with the fear of it?
Consider Devika’s software team. The new product her team was working on had a higher-than-usual number of bugs. Within the first few project calls, she noticed patterns in who spoke and who stayed silent. In particular, she noted that the coders rarely chimed in, especially if there were concerns, like a bug. Yet, talking about errors was critical to finding and fixing them. She understood their embarrassment - who wouldn’t feel awkward? No doubt they had witnessed or heard about outbursts from other managers. She needed to create conditions where people could talk about mistakes, and the entire team could address and learn from them. To start, she had to build psychological safety, especially with staff who were non-native English speakers and “junior” tech personnel. Without their timely input, the project would fail.
We all bring personal beliefs, filters, and backstories with which we interpret our workplace environments. Let’s face it; If someone has spent their life feeling unable to speak up, they won’t suddenly feel otherwise on a work team simply because its leaders are trying to create a “safe space.” It makes sense that race, gender, sexuality, native language, ability, and personality would play a role in psychological safety.
The research confirms that creating psychological safety has wide-reaching benefits and outcomes. But a team or group’s psychological safety is only as strong as the psychological safety experienced by the people who will benefit most. Often that means the team members with less power, social privilege, and those who tend to hold back for whatever reasons. So what can be done?
Cultivating Psychological Safety For All
Cultivating psychological safety in teams like Devika’s requires a multi-pronged approach. Indeed, those who feel more psychological safety – leaders and others in positions of power, must take responsibility for building it up for everyone. And they must create the conditions for those with less power or social privilege to develop skills, including the courage to speak up.
In her book, “The Fearless Organization,” Amy C. Edmondson identifies three key leadership behaviors that build a culture of psychological safety. They are the following:
Create an environment where teammates can make mistakes and not be discredited or embarrassed. Instead, frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem.
Be willing to be vulnerable. Acknowledge your fallibility.
Model curiosity and ask lots of questions. Invite participation, including dissenting opinions.
Leaders can build psychological safety by focusing on learning rather than on executing according to a plan. A learner mindset encourages team members to speak up more quickly as they encounter obstacles. Leaders will create more engaged teams when they demonstrate humility, allow all team members to share their points of view, and encourage opposing or differing perspectives.
“Psychological safety is not at odds with having tough conversations –
it is what allows us to have tough conversations."
- Amy C. Edmondson
The flip side of leaders creating safe spaces for team members to speak up is skilling employees with the ability to have candid conversations, express their opinions effectively, and admit mistakes. This is especially true for those with less tenure, experience, and positional authority or who experience different levels of social privilege because of their race, gender, sexuality, and other identities.
In his book, “Choosing Courage: The Everyday Guide to Being Brave at Work,” Jim Detert recommends “habituation through planned exposure.” In other words, practice, lots of real-life practice, and skill-building. Specifically, he advises anyone who wants to improve speaking up to construct a “courage ladder.” Start experimenting with moderate risk behaviors; for example, have a difficult conversation with a peer, or step out of your comfort zone in a meeting to give your opinion. And then gradually increase your risk tolerance from there.
With Devika’s leadership, her project team instituted a practice of starting each meeting with “glows and grows.” Everyone, regardless of rank or tenure, including Devika, spoke about one accomplishment they were proud of and one mistake or near-miss they learned from. The team practice achieved two things: people got used to celebrating even small successes, and they discovered everyone makes mistakes, and they can all learn from (not fear) talking about them.
“Like any skill, competent courage to speak up comes with practice. We develop mastery over difficult fear-laden situations by carefully exposing ourselves to, not avoiding, these situations.”
- Jim Detert
Ignition Coaching Case Study: Boosting Psychological Safety, Emotional Resilience, and Collaboration
The above is a live scribe from a client workshop where we explored how to build psychological safety in the four areas of inclusion, contribution, learning and challenging. Artwork created by Jean Baptiste Vincent from Sketch & co.
Our team applies these concepts to support our clients in real and practical ways. The following is a case study which highlights the power of psychological safety and emotional intelligence work.
In a rapidly growing organization, we were tasked to provide a bespoke learning and development program that addresses the unique needs of a multicultural group working in a complex setting. Our solution combined experiential workshops, digital team assessments, online learning, group coaching and leadership workshops, enabling this organization to thrive in a high-pressure environment while embracing a culture of collaboration and psychological safety.
The Client:
The organization operates in a remote and relatively austere location with team members from over ten nationalities, facing immense pressure to deliver mission-critical work while scaling their team and workload exponentially. The team leader recognized the need to focus on wellbeing and emotional resilience given the complexity of this project and the unique ways in which this diverse team members collaborated and embodied work culture.
The Challenge:
The content of our workshops and coaching was novel to the business sector, and the organization needed support in navigating the challenges of a diverse and rapidly growing team.
Our Solution:
We began with an Emotional intelligence and resilience training program to build greater self-awareness and to create a shared understanding of managing experiences in a multicultural environment.
Ignition Academy's online learning platform enhanced in-person work with digital content and interaction, making the process more efficient, impactful, and cost-effective.
Cohorts participated in 'safe space' discussions within the learning platform, promoting collaboration and mutual support.
Team members engaged in self-reflective practices, such as journaling and mindfulness, to reduce anxiety and build self-efficacy.
The entire team learned to give and receive candid feedback, fostering empathic relationships and open communication.
Quarterly strategic retreats and off-sites allowed team members to take ownership of co-creating and driving the desired team culture.
The Psychological Safety (PS) assessment tool measured PS levels before and after the intervention, identifying areas of strength and focus as well as exploring practical ways to build greater psychological safety.
Working with the leadership team to create the desired culture and right tone from the top.
The Results:
Throughout the year-long engagement, we assessed and measured the training program's impact. Team members have shared that although the concept of health and wellbeing in an organizational setting is recognized across the world, it is fairly new when it comes to cultural and social standards. It is innovative for this organization and its team leaders to embrace the concepts of wellbeing and psychological safety wholeheartedly, helping to destigmatize conversations about mental health and encouraging employees to speak up and collaborate in new and impactful ways.
The ability to have open conversations improved dramatically, moving from the 2nd to the 4th quartile. Other psychological safety measures, such as willingness to help, inclusion and diversity, and attitude towards risk and failure, scored in the highest 3rd and 4th quartiles. In fact, the results from our work were so impactful that our client work was nominated and shortlisted for the Best Innovation in Training and Development.
Client Testimonials:
One young professional on the team, called the experience transformative, as it helped to destigmatize mental health conversations and encourage deeper and more meaningful collaboration. They found the emotional resilience course particularly helpful in understanding emotions and thoughts and their direct impact on wellbeing, employee engagement and more effective teamwork.
Other team members reported the following benefits:
The programme has taught me how to manage my emotions, embrace my feelings, even the negative ones. These put me at an advantage. - Manager
The biggest takeaway for me has been learning techniques to deal with stressful situations. I now feel equipped to deal with the challenges. - Senior Manager
The breathing techniques we learnt had a real impact on me. I feel able to stay present and in the moment. This has helped me have tough conversations with stakeholders and work in a high-pressure environment. - Senior Manager
The team's culture is now palpably different from when they began this journey together. Our tailored learning and development approach successfully addressed the unique needs of this multicultural organization, fostering psychological safety, emotional resilience, and collaboration for a thriving work environment.
Psychological safety is never a one-and-done kind of training. It requires ongoing attention to developing and sustaining behaviors and norms, especially as team members come and go. Yet, the proof is in the pudding. With strong leadership and support, authentic compassion, psychological safety takes root.
This article was co-authored by Executive Coach Ann Petry.