Building Psychological Safety in the Workplace
Many managers come to our firm concerned about what they don’t know. Specifically, they mention mistakes that fly under the radar for months. Unexplained issues sap resources, and in healthcare systems, they cost lives. How can you improve your organization’s efficacy and reduce medication errors? There’s a simple solution. Building psychological safety at work empowers employees to speak up when it matters most.
Psychological Safety Definition
Psychological safety is defined as an environment that rewards individuals who take interpersonal risks. In such a setting, team members feel comfortable identifying problems, communicating them, and exploring solutions. Psychologically safe workplaces have an advantage over competitors: when employees can admit mistakes, the entire organization learns from failure, fostering innovation.
Benefits of psychological safety include:
Confidence in pointing out others’ mistakes (which reduces errors and saves lives)
Increased trust of supervisors
Reduced fear of backlash for speaking up
Meetings to address suboptimal policies
Improved group dynamics, teamwork, and accountability
Heightened efficiency and employee retention
Unsafe environments, on the other hand, struggle with a vicious cycle of avoidance, blame, and careful adherence to established norms. The result is a restrictive, high-anxiety workplace that stifles creativity. These employees are more focused on managing impressions than contributing to growth. Many organizations deal with psychological safety issues on some level. Fortunately, firms like Strategic Workplace Consulting can quickly resolve rifts in company culture.
Psychological Safety Quiz
First, establish the current state of your company. An accurate assessment provides crucial information about openings for organizational improvement.
Does your workplace fulfill any of these criteria?
If someone makes a mistake, it is held against them.
It is difficult for members of this team to request help from others.
Some team members undermine others’ efforts.
Team members struggle to bring up problems, inefficiencies, or errors.
Interpersonal conflicts are often left unaddressed by management.
There is a pervasive fear of punishment or embarrassment.
If these statements ring true, your environment may be psychologically unsafe. Fortunately, there are three steps you can take to improve company culture within six months.
How to Create Psychological Safety
In the words of Amy Edmondson, the Harvard professor who discovered this principle, the first step is to “frame the work as a learning problem, not an execution problem.” Acknowledge that the work your organization undertakes will involve some degree of uncertainty and that everyone will rely on one another. Medicine, after all, is far from a perfect science. Emphasize that this means everyone’s voice is needed.
Next: remind your staff that to err is human. Everyone in the hospital is fallible and may make mistakes, including high-ranking professionals like administrators, doctors, and charge nurses. Use phrases like, “I may have missed something, so I need to hear from you,” in your day-to-day vocabulary. Enact policies that protect whistleblowers.
Finally, demonstrate the qualities you want to see. If you show your team how to be curious, they are more likely to perceive curiosity as a positive attribute. Ask questions, evaluate mistakes, and lead conversations about how to improve things in the future.
Psychological Safety Exercises
To promote psychological safety in your workplace, you will need organization-wide involvement. Taking the time to lead exercises like those listed below can foster trust among management and their teams.
Begin by presenting low-risk topics for discussion. Author Patrick Lencioni recommends asking just five questions: hometown, first job, worst job, number of siblings, and hobbies outside of work. Instead of asking team members to analyze a catastrophic error, allow them to explore these subjects. This exercise shows participants how to structure higher-risk discussions dealing with more sensitive issues. It also improves relationships between team members.
Practice vulnerability. Have employees and managers discuss recent issues, including problems they could not solve or patients with particularly challenging conditions. Then, have each team member explain how these challenges improved their skills.
Ask leaders to visualize their recent successes. How have they taken others’ perspectives, spoken up, or helped others to share their concerns? How can they implement these lessons in the future? Encourage each speaker to be as detailed as possible. This type of training teaches supervisors to notice positive behaviors in the future.
Lead conflict resolution demonstrations. These roleplaying exercises help team members learn how to speak up constructively. They also promote open conversations and dispel resentment.
Strengthen Your Organization
Ready to improve psychological safety, reduce liability, and stop preventable errors? Through our proprietary PS Training Program, Strategic Workplace Consulting advises healthcare organizations of all sizes. Whether you operate a concierge practice, urgent care facility, or behavioral health center, we can strengthen your team. Our seasoned staff, led by Dr. Stephen Wohl, brings a combined 100 years of industry expertise to every case. Contact us today for your complimentary assessment.