Back to 'basics': understanding psychological safety

Psychological safety isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a fundamental component for organisational growth, performance, and employee engagement. It's a relatively ubiquitous term nowadays - frequently appearing in books, articles, podcasts, and videos dedicated to individual and team development - and an accurate understanding of the concept is key to being able to create a culture of trust and collaboration within your team and wider organisation.

Clinical psychologist, Carl Rogers, was seemingly the first person to use the term back in the 1950s. Since around 2000, the term has been rapidly increasing in Google searches. And now, we're at a point in time where 89% of employees feel that psychological safety in the modern workplace is essential; 70% of modern leadership development programmes incorporate psychological safety into its syllabus; and when psychological safety is developed effectively in organisations, they can expect to achieve a revenue that surpasses their annual target by up to 25% in key markets.

All of this considered, psychological safety sounds compelling.

So, what's psychological safety all about, anyway?

Simply put, psychological safety is present when you imagine an environment in which each individual feels empowered to share innovative ideas, challenge the status quo, and participate in discussions without fear or apprehension. A phrase coined by one of the world's leading experts and researchers on the subject, Amy Edmondson, psychological safety is defined as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas questions, concerns or mistakes”. Here, individuals feel more confident participating in environments where every opinion is valued, and this creates the conditions for ideas to flow freely, allowing seeds of creativity and innovation to take root.

In workplaces where psychological safety exists, team members feel more engaged and less likely to leave their organisation. They believe their contributions count, which leads to them feeling more confident to speak up.

Subsequently, psychological safety can lead to enhanced decision making within teams. When psychological safety is present, a greater range of concerns and ideas are more likely to brought to the table, thereby giving the group access to more perspectives. The greater the number of perspectives, the greater likelihood of unearthing that single, most powerful solution to drive forward.

Research has also shown that more effective teams make more mistakes. When this was explored further, it was found that better teams were even more likely to report their mistakes as a result of psychological safety. This allowed the teams with psychological safety to explore their mistakes and learn from them, ultimately making them more effective.

Other studies have also demonstrated the significant negative impact for organisations that lack psychological safety; specifically, increased stress, burnout, and employee turnover. It also results in slower development for employees and reduced overall performance for the organisation as a whole.

How to build psychological safety in your workplace

So, it's perhaps become clear that psychological safety is more than a mere 'trend'. It's a feature of the modern workplace that enables people to fulfil their potential, translating into increased organisational performance and profit.

To harness the benefits of psychological safety, though, it's not enough that a few leaders in the organisation adopt it here and there; it must be a collective, cultural, and consistent effort. By imbuing psychological safety in the very fabric of the organisation, everyone - and therefore organisational performance - is able to prosper.

Take, for example, the following three factors of company culture that influence psychological safety:

1. Organisational values

Company culture establishes norms and values which influence what is viewed as acceptable behaviour within an organisation. A culture that values open communication, inclusion, and learning from mistakes will foster an environment where psychological safety can thrive.

2. Leadership behaviour

Leaders play a huge role in shaping company culture and as a result, their decisions and actions have a significant impact on the existence of psychological safety.

3. Feedback practices

A culture that embraces constructive feedback promotes psychological safety by supporting individuals whilst allowing them to learn from their mistakes.

By addressing these factors, organisations can take the initial steps toward creating conditions conducive to greater psychological safety within teams and the wider organisation.

Psychological safety isn't a buzzword nor a trend; it's very much here to stay and a key point of focus. Perhaps it's even something that has been present in and contributing to successful organisations for longer than we initially thought; only it hadn't been recognised or coined at the time. Either way, we now know, fairly conclusively, that it's fundamental to how people, teams, and organisations succeed - and accurately understanding psychological safety is a crucial first step towards instilling it in your workplace practices.