Psychological safety can be developed: It’s like a muscle, we have to trained it with consistency and nurture
Psychological safety is the belief held by members of a team that others will not embarrass, reject, or punish you for speaking up. It is a belief that we won’t be punished if we make a mistake, a belief that we are allowed to speak our mind and share ideas, no matter how crazy or stupid they might seem. It starts with speaking human – to – human and respecting everyone’s opinion. Requirement for this is adoption of growth mindset that enables us to hear and understand others points of view with certain curiosity.
In successful businesses there is open communication space to ask for feedback to illuminate our blind spots.
Oliver: “If you want to develop a culture of trust, you have to establish a stroke economy of feed-back to nurture it.”
Fundamental human needs and psychological safety
Satisfying the need of Structure, Recognition and Activity can give us opportunity to create psychological safety within the team.
Creating a psychological safety culture can give us:
- higher level of engagement,
- more opportunities for learning and
- increased motivation and
- better performance.
Establishing psychological safety is closely related with three needs:
- need of structure,
- need of recognition,
- need of activity.
The need of structure gives us sense of meaning about our work – Why this?
The need of recognition gives us sense of belonging – What for?
The need of activity gives us sense of grow and activity – How much?
The most important thing here for individual is to be aware what is his preferred need and to know the need preferences of others. We cannot just assume and conclude that other people have the same need as we have. But being aware is not enough, it is crucial that that we also make sure that they are fulfilled.
Olivier: “When our needs are not fulfilled, we are at risk on both, individual and organizational level”.
Being conscious of self, others and situations is important to fulfill our needs. When interacting with your team members, be conscious of their need preferences. Because if we do not fulfil individual’s needs, he or she can be in distress which can influence their performance. When fundamental human needs are recognized and fulfilled, we feel protected and we feel we can be authentic.
Taking responsibility for one’s psychological safety
On individual level we have to do regular “check in” with ourself and our team members.
First step in this process is that individuals have to be aware of their need; they have to know themselves.
Second step requires you to learn how to ask for what you need; you have to develop polite and effective attitude.
- Example 1: If you don’t have enough structure, ask for it.
How to ask: I felt that we did not have a clear structure on this meeting in terms of agenda and goals. For the next meeting I would really appreciate if you could send them before the meeting.
- Example 2: If you do not have enough recognition, ask for it.
How to ask: I feel like you were patronizing me in the last meeting and I do not like that. In the future I would really appreciate if you had a more respectful communication. “
Third step demands that you take responsibility for your own psychological safety, which in other words mean that you have to take care of yourself. We all know that we cannot change the organizational culture very easily, but we can change ourself.
Davor: “Everyone should be active. Taking small steps, but doing it every day. And everybody will see the difference. That means consistency. You don’t have to be the best; you just have to be consistent and hard worker. It will pay off.”
When you are able to manage your emotions, you will be able to align with your needs, ask for their fulfillment and stay grounded. This will give you the power and strength to except others for who they are, embrace this connection and get the effective response that you need. In short, you have to do regular “check in” with yourself and your team members and ask for what you need.
On organizational level we have to develop a safe environment, by creating culture of trust.
Oliver: “First is the is awareness of the needs, from structure, recognition and activity point. Second is that we give employees the opportunity to “flow” in that position they can experience their competencies, challenges and their interests. Third is building the culture of trust. But all this deepens of the level of maturity of the organization. Different organization develop and implement culture of trust in different way.
What is the right culture: Create your own culture of trust?
Developing a culture of trust and psychological safety at work is paramount to your business’s success. A culture of trust, where people can express themselves with no harm, because they are protected by culture trust mindset. People are not afraid to say their opinion, if they are free of judgment and encourage to see feedback as a way to strengthen and build upon their ideas and processes.
Davor: “The problem in this society is that people are becoming soft. If you say something nice it is OK., but if you upfront with CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms, not on personal level, but even if you want to change or help them do better, they get it all wrong. Therefore, people are afraid to speak up, because they are being labelled right away.”
Organization culture should base on a stroke economy based on feed -backs and nurture it. It takes time to change culture, so we have to smart.
Establish trust culture means that er are establishing so called “stroke economy” in the organization where each stroke is represented by praise or criticism. This requires us to regulate with other people on a daily basis, be open minded and express our needs in not violent communication manner, so that we create our own psychological safety. But in order to do that, we need self-trust and trust in others.:
Tamara: “The new currency is trust. Trust in people and trust in organization. Feeling that you have been trusted and that you trust organization too.”
Organizations need to actively support an inclusive environment to ensure psychological safety. A culture of trust encourages inclusivity by making employees feel appreciated and connected. People value structure, recognition and activity, from both managers and employees that is personal, genuine, and meaningful. These awareness costs very little, and there are major consequences to not taking it seriously.
Davor: “The first thing organization has to be responsible enough to know, that the money they spend on employee are important investment which helps employees become a better person, that will make them better workers, who will have a better result.”
Many of employees who haven’t received recognition leave the company faster as other employees. Plus, employee engagement is directly tied to recognition. It is a simple reason for that, people like to contribute and see that their work is meaningful.
Tamara: “So if company are clever enough to find topics which are tangible, which people can manage, can contribute and have impact, that companies can gain really a lot.”
Davor: “The trust is not a fixed concept, because as soon we are starting to think that we can change, we will. If you want to be successful you have to trust, you have to be honest and you have to find a specific roll for everyone. Being able to grow as individual or as a team takes a lot of time. The most import is consistency, second is hard work, third is analyzing thing that you could do better and last is that you love what you do.”
Changing processes and systems is not enough, you also have to train your employees to understand the concept and to develop the needed skill.
A culture of trust yields higher engagement, happier employees, greater productivity, and higher profits. And it all starts with our mindset. Organizational cultures that recognize that employees are multi-dimensional and are interested in comprehensive personal and professional development beyond technical development will have a competitive advantage over those that don’t.
Dr. Sabina Đuvelek