Workplace teams are a dynamic ever changing entity that need to be provided the opportunity and the environment to flourish and thrive.
“There’s no team without trust.” –Paul Santagata.
Psychological Safety is the foundation of high-performing teams. No matter how talented, smart, or diverse team members are, they won’t take risks or experiment if they fear being punished. This article about Psychological Safety is a valuable starting point to consider.
What is Psychological Safety in the workplace?
Psychological safety is the foundation of high-performing teams. It creates a space where people feel secure and safe to speak up, be themselves, and experiment.
Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. People are not afraid of negative consequences like being criticised, ignored, laughed at, or punished.
High-performing teams need psychological safety. When people feel accepted and respected, they bring their best selves to work.
What Psychological Safety is not
Working in a psychologically safe environment does not mean that people always agree for the sake of being nice.
It also doesn’t mean that people will praise or unconditionally support everything you say. It’s not about being nice, but candid.
Psychological Safety provides the space to address conflict productively. It enables people to speak up, be candid, and think of what’s best for the team.
Psychological Safety isn’t about saying everything you want or being disrespectful either. It’s not about being authentic, but candid.
What Are The Benefits?
Increased Psychological Safety drives higher engagement, collaboration, and participation.
It increases creativity, conflict resolution, and overall well-being.
Psychological Safety makes it easier to include the voice of quiet members and leads to better team performance.
Why is Psychological Safety Important for Teamwork?
Psychological Safety increases participation by integrating different voices and perspectives, thus improving collaboration.
High psychological safety practices:
– Open dialogue
– People sharing their opinions and ideas confidently
– Fearless behaviour and mindset
– Emotions are welcome and acknowledged
– Team members solve conflict productively
– Conversational turn-taking–leaders speak last
Low psychological safety behaviours:
– Silence or self-censoring
– People keeping their opinions or ideas to themselves
– Fear of being ignored, ridiculed, punished, or fired
– Emotions are ignored or bottled
– Conflict avoidance
– Quite voices are not included–leaders interrupt and influence others
What are the 5 behaviours of high performing teams according to Google?
Google’s Project Aristotle uncovered 5 behaviours that create high performing teams: Psychological Safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact.
How do I start building Psychological Safety?
Consider these 3 steps
1. Start with the leader. The most senior people in a team or organisation must set the stage to frame the work and emphasise the purpose. They must lead by example.
2. Invite participation. Leaders must practice inquiry to encourage people to challenge beliefs and established practices. This requires intellectual humility and to set transparent processes to drive equal participation of all team members.
3. Respond productively. Listen to people’s ideas and opinions but, most importantly, appreciate their input and make it explicit that you paid attention. Also, destigmatise failure and making mistakes.
So how can your encourage Psychological Safety?
1. Increase Self-Awareness:
Trust starts with yourself. If you want someone to trust you, you must trust them first. Self-awareness not only helps us grow but also uncovers our blind spots. Feedback is vital to understand how we deal with trust.
Self-aware leaders embrace vulnerability — they aren’t afraid of recognising mistakes. That’s the first step to heal an unsafe culture.
Self-awareness makes us both trusting and trustworthy.
2. Facilitate Participation:
Organisations have a silence problem, but most don’t realise it. Silence encourages groupthink — people keep their genuine opinions to themselves.
Design meetings to increase participation and openness.
Practice conversational turn-taking. Provide each team member a turn to speak up. Managers or loud people should always go last —- you don’t want them to influence or intimidate the rest.
3. Design Team Rituals:
Rituals are an effective way to drive meaningful change. They accelerate collaboration, creativity, and trust. Team rituals bring people together -they help correct or reinforce behaviours in a human, non-threatening way.
Stride has increased inclusion and participation with their Lean Coffee ritual. It’s an open, no-agenda meeting where everyone shares topics they would like to discuss. The entire team votes on what items will be addressed.
4. Establish Adult Rules and Norms:
Most companies say they trust their employees, but then their rules show the opposite.
Psychological safety is encouraging people to behave like adults; to address things openly, with respect, and candour. Corporate rules should promote that same behaviour.
Trust is not built with words, but with acts. Many companies are now offering an unlimited leave policy while others have removed the approval process.
When company policies trust rather than control employees, people feel safe to bring their best selves.
5. Reward and Punish Behaviour:
Building a culture of psychological safety requires action, not just words. Leaders must reward good behaviours and don’t let bad ones go unpunished.
Managers define who gets promoted, work on the cool projects, or attend leadership training —- their actions signal what the organisation rewards. Their behaviours could encourage or hinder Psychological Safety.
Trust is fragile—- hard to build, easy to destroy. One act is worth a thousand words.
How to measure Psychological Safety
When Google started measuring psychological safety, you can consider asking employees seven questions:
1) If you make a mistake on this team, is it often held against you?
2) Are members of this team able to bring up problems and tough issues?
3) Do people on this team sometimes reject others for thinking differently?
4) Is it safe to take a risk in this team?
5) Is it difficult to ask other members of this team for help?
6) Would anyone on this team deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts?
7) When working with members of this team, are my unique skills and talents valued and utilised?
Use the questions above with a 5-point scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
Perceptions and emotions vary. Don’t expect results to be stable or always grow in a positive direction. Ups and downs can be course correction or a change in direction.
Measuring is important, but focus on building the right habits, not just on monitoring an index.
How To Get Started
Hold check-ins at the beginning of meetings. Ask participants, “What’s got your attention?” This simple practice creates empathy but also drives focus, people can let go of worries and distractions.
Start small & be patient. Increasing psychological safety requires time and consistency.
Design safe meetings. Silent meetings or Progressive Brainstormings: being progressive makes it less intimidating for people to share their ideas. They liberate everyone’s hidden talents.
Leverage the power of duos. Creating accountability partnerships between two people is a quick and effective way of building a safe space – one duo at-a-time.
Hold a team retrospective. Take time to pause and reflect on how the team is doing. Focus on the overall collective dynamic rather than on individual behaviours. .
Leverage the positive. Practice asking “What’s working at our team/ company?” But also, “What’s not working at our team/ company?” Create a habit of addressing conflict productively at work.
Take care of remote teams. Remote teams need to meet in-person from time to time. Also, make time to strengthen personal connections and bonding.
Want to know more about developing psychological safety in your workplace? Contact Michelle on 0412047590 or via email michelle@bakjacconsulting.com
Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, leadership, behaviour and wellbeing.
