A psychologically unsafe environment stifles (potentially) good ideas, throttles growth, and makes good employees want to leave your workplace.
When there is psychological safety in the workplace, people feel they can suggest ideas, admit mistakes, and take risks without being embarrassed by the larger group.
So here is a quick assessment you could ask your team to complete. It’s a simple five-question assessment Liz Fosslein and Mollie West Duffy included in their book, "No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work" to determine your team's level of psychological safety — and identify steps you can take to increase it.
When teams have psychological safety, people feel they can suggest ideas, admit mistakes, and take risks without being embarrassed by the group. Creating a psychologically safe workplace isn't just a nice thing to do for you teams; it's vital for business.
Google completed some research in 2012 to try and figure out "why some teams succeed where others fail." The Google researchers found that "individual team members' tenure, seniority, and extraversion didn't seem to affect team performance." It turns out that it doesn't matter who is on the team. "What mattered was the 'how': The best teams were those whose members respected one another's ideas". It turns out that psychological safety is the most important dynamic that sets successful teams apart.
To help you assess your team's level of psychological safety, the authors laid out just five statements modified from Amy Edmonson's Team Psychological Safety Assessment. Rate your team on a scale of one (strongly disagree) to seven (strongly agree) for the following:
1. If I make a mistake on my team, it is often held against me.
2. Members of my team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
3. It is safe to take a risk on this team.
4. It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
5. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.
To score:
· Add up your scores from 2, 3, and 5 for a subtotal.
· Subtract your score on question 1 from 8 and
· your score on question 4 from 8,
· then add both of those numbers to the subtotal to get your final score.
A final score of 0 to 15 means your team is psychologically unsafe, a score of 16 to 30 means your team has some psychological safety but could increase it, and a score of more than 30 means your team has a good amount of psychological safety.
Want to know more about developing psychological safety in your team? Get in contact with Michelle Bakjac via email at michelle@bakjacconsulting.com to enquire about coaching and training to develop your strategies to enhance your team objectives.
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 MTQ Plus accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals, teams and organisations to develop and improve performance, leadership, behaviour, resilience and wellbeing. You can find her at www.bakjacconsulting.com
