How to Create A Psychological Safety Zone
How to Create A Psychological Safety Zone
Amy Edmondson, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, coined the term psychological safety as the ability to share your opinion, viewpoint, feedback, differences, and failures without the fear of judgement, shaming or ridicule from those around you. In her research, she found that organizations that create this safe space for open dialogue will often times flush out human error and therefore be able to course correct quicker than organizations that do not practice psychological safety. People will not authentically share their mistakes when they fear that being honest will lead to punishment, humiliation or ridicule.
So what creates a sense of safety and connection which moves us to feel secure sharing our ideas, questions, concerns and mistakes? It’s an inside job as we can not give out to the world around us what we are not practicing within our own life. Trust and safety walk hand in hand. Trust is a process that can lead to psychological safety. Brene Brown offers a powerful definition of trust:choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of others.Simply put:I can trust you when what is important to me is safe with you. According to Brown distrust occurs in relationships,when what I’ve shared with you that’s important to me is not safe with you.
How does trust tie-in with psychological safety?When I determine that what is important to me is not safe with you then I will not speak up and share myopinion, viewpoint, feedback, differences, and failures with you.Consider the negative impact of that scenario.What is the ramification to a team, direct reports and colleagues when I don’t speak up?
If your people do not feel safe to speak up then relationships, team cohesiveness, innovation and productivity will ultimately suffer. A number one reason why people leave their current position is because they feel a lack of belonging. According to Diversity and Inclusion at Cornell University:creating genuine feelings of belonging for all is a critical factor in improving engagement and performance.
As you intentionally participate in creating a genuine concern for the people around you, respecting that not everyone thinks the way you think, you up the ante that you will expand the trust factor on your team which will lead to psychological safety and engagement. Edmondson suggests 3 goals when it comes to being a psychological safety advocate:
- Frame work projects by inviting everyone’s voice in the game.
- Acknowledge your own infallibility:I may miss something.Care about people.
- Remain curious: ask questions which create the necessity for voice.
As mentioned earlier in the article, you can not give out what you are not personally practicing in your own life. There are four wellness and personal excellence areas that support a healthy ability to maintain psychological safety personally and professionally:
- Stress Management:Practice taking back the power you give to external circumstances to define what you believe you can handle successfully.
- Boundaries:The limits you create in your life (mental, emotional and physical) to protect yourself from overcommitting and burnout.
- Balance:The ability to expend your energy without depleting the source of you. Create healthy ground rules that give you the opportunity to align your behavior with what you value most. You can respectfully say no and delegate.
- Communication:know what you want for yourself, the other person and the relationship before you open your mouth. Watch out for strong emotions that hijack you out of what you really want.
What do you want to do more of and less of in order to build a foundation for personal excellence and wellness in your daily life? As you commit to those behaviors that support the best version of yourself, you are better equipped to participate in creating a zone of psychological safety for the people around you.
Are you in a position to influence another person? Then you are in a position of leadership. Lead well and know that what you do and say has an impact on the people around you. Be intentional about creating safe space as you invite people to freely engage with each other and step out of the fear zone. People engage when they know that you care about them and their goals. As you invite participation and create ground rules that are rooted in psychological safety, the trust factor with increase along with personal engagement: Engagement = Psychological Safety + Trust. Leaders who positively impact the lives of the people around them have an amazing ability to create safe space in dialogue as they maintain a nonjudgmental attitude built on humility and curiosity.
Lauren E Miller, M.Ed, MSC, PCC
Lauren E Miller, has a Masters in Adult Education with a Certification in Human Resources Development. ICF and Master Sherpa Executive Certified Coach. She has personally conquered two of life’s top stressors at the same time, advanced cancer and divorce. As a Subject Matter Expert in Stress Management, International Award-Winning Author, Speaker; HRD Trainer, Certified NLP/EFT Master Practitioner, Lauren provides process driven programs with structure, guidance, support and accountability designed to create positive change in behavior resulting in positive impact on business (IOB) and life purpose. Explore More at:http://LaurenEMiller.com
