On Psychological Safety
Last week, I shared my views on the debate between a culture of comfort versus a culture of performance and suggested that the focus should instead be on achieving a Culture of Learning. I also mentioned that, to cultivate this culture of learning, teams and organisations need to foster both high levels of Psychological Safety and Collective Accountability and Commitment. So, how do you achieve these two things in a team or organisation?
Let’s start with Psychological Safety. Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as “the shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” At Neu21, we refer to this as “the ways of relating” between team members. When Google conducted Project Aristotle to understand what makes an effective team, they discovered that the individuals on the team mattered less than how those individuals interacted with each other. In other words, focus less on having “star players” (to use a sporting analogy), and more on how team members relate to each other (how they ‘pass the ball’ to each other).
When it comes to interactions, Google identified two behaviours as critical: equality in conversational turn-taking and active listening. They found that groups where a few individuals dominated the conversation were less collectively intelligent than those with a more equal distribution of conversational turn-taking. It sounds simple, doesn’t it? It is; but sadly, it’s not as common in today’s corporate world as we might like to believe.
So, given this, if you are a leader, what practical steps can you take to improve Psychological Safety in your team or organisation? I address leaders here because I believe they hold significant influence in enhancing Psychological Safety.
I would focus on these four areas:
Focus on the system of work. Don’t look for the “perfect” team members; instead, try to create the best “system of work,” regardless of the calibre of your team members. Don’t expect things to be perfect all the time either; allow for experimentation, creativity, and even failure. When things go wrong, don’t blame the team. Instead, consider how the system of work could be improved to prevent similar mistakes in the future.
Build diversity of thought around you. A leader’s role is to identify what attributes are missing in a team and to bring those to the table. One of the successes of Neu21, in my view, has been creating a safe space where people from different backgrounds, experiences, cultures, and perspectives have found common ground, fulfilling their individual purposes while contributing to a larger, unifying purpose. Sometimes, organisations and teams become too focused on creating a “single culture.” However, I believe it is more interesting and effective to create a blend of cultures connected by a shared purpose and vision.
Model the behaviours you expect from your team. Certain behaviours are key to increasing Psychological Safety in teams. These include active listening, conversational turn-taking, vulnerability (distinct from oversharing), transparency in data and decisions, kind and considerate communication, and empathy. If you aim to build a team with high Psychological Safety, don’t expect team members to model these behaviours unless you do so yourself. Reflect on your conduct as a leader: do you dominate conversations in meetings? Are you transparent in your decision-making? Are you actively listening, or are you distracted by your phone or computer?
Recognise that Psych Safety is not fixed. If the composition of your team changes, the level of psychological safety might also shift, especially if someone who exemplified the above behaviours departs. Similarly, don’t assume that a single display of vulnerability or transparency is sufficient. Ideally, this way of relating should feel natural and embedded, not something forced in an attempt to ‘tick’ the psychological safety box.
So, how are you going to improve Psychological Safety in your team?
