Are you feeling hesitant to participate in your team right now? Is it because you are afraid of being ignored? That’s one of the things you can experience when you think your team environment is unsafe.
According to Google, a team that enjoys having a successful business is attributed directly to the reason that their environment is psychologically safe, where team members feel safe to take risks and be vulnerable in front of each other. So as a result, they can provide extraordinary performance, such as dependability, structure, and clarity.
Having a psychologically safe environment is sometimes not paid attention to in a company, so progress in performance is not seen. Now let’s look at why your workplace must be psychologically safe.
What is Psychological Safety?
During the pandemic, we always consider each other’s physical safety. Do we always ask if they wear the proper PPE? Have they been vaccinated? Or have they been tested? It should be the same if a team values their psychological safety. Psychological safety is important for our teams to work well, learn from their mistakes, and develop new ideas.
Psychological safety is the conviction that speaking concerns, questions, ideas, or errors will not result in punishment or humiliation. The purpose of a psychological safe workplace is to encourage each team member to share their thoughts and ideas, or discuss workplace issues, rather than choosing to remain silent and not participate. Employees who feel psychologically secure are willing to take risks, speak the truth, and contribute ideas.
An unwritten rule states that workers should not feel ashamed or punished if they demonstrate ignorance by asking new questions or offering alternative solutions to a problem. Building trust takes time, and it begins with reaching out to others and maintaining an open, honest dialogue.
Is Your Team Psychologically Safe?
- Does your team leader state that he or she desires greater challenge and diversity of opinion from the rest of the team, but it never seems to occur?
- Is your team too quick to agree on significant issues without a thorough discussion?
- Do you leave team meetings feeling frustrated about everything that should have been talked about but wasn’t?
- If there is a problem, does it quickly lead to team members not getting along? Can you anticipate when and how this will occur?
- Does your team continually make and fail to learn from the same errors?
- Does the fear of being blamed prevent you from bringing up challenging issues with your team?
- Do you feel as though your team is stagnant and making no progress?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, your team may not perform as well as it could due to an unsafe team environment. In order to have a psychologically safe environment, here are three things that you should know.
1. Views That Differ From the Majority Are Ignored
When team members observe that opposing points of view are routinely rejected, they are less likely to contribute knowledge or ideas that deviate from what the majority of the group knows. The common knowledge effect manifests itself in this way as well.
The majority of group members prefer to hear information that supports their own view, so those who voice the most common information tend to have the most impact on the discussion. Similarly, those who bring up different points are less likely to be taken seriously and less likely to continue speaking up. This is especially true if the information comes from a less authoritative source, such as a junior team member.
Managers can mitigate this by encouraging and rewarding employees who express unusual or disputable points of view. Admitting that the idea is not perfect and showing genuine curiosity about its value shows the rest of the group that unique perspectives are appreciated.
2. The Gratitude Versus Blame Game
Managers and team members must be able to rely on one another to hold them to account for their actions and output. However, this can be mistaken for blame in the aftermath of a setback. A manager that uses failure as a means to “point fingers and humiliate the guilty,” as described by Cass Sunstein and Reid Hastie in “Making Dumb Groups Smarter,” is engaging in what they call “blamestorms” or “circular fire squads.”
People are less likely to bring their whole selves to work when they believe they are being judged. They’ll keep to themselves, agree with everyone, and work to keep the peace if they can. As a result, the team is less likely to see the failure as a valuable learning experience and more likely to dwell on the “psychological danger” that may have contributed to the failure in the first place.
Psychologically safe environments embrace mistakes and view failure as a learning opportunity instead of focusing on blame. Managers can take a novel approach by expressing appreciation for employees’ efforts even when they fail.
Even though it may seem counterproductive to reward everyone for their efforts after a setback, Sunstein and Hastie argue that managers must show appreciation for their employees immediately following a setback so that morale can be restored. Teams can then build on this foundation and see the setback as a chance to grow and improve.
3. A Person Avoids Being Wrong Like a Plague
Getting comfortable with making mistakes is something many of us have been taught to avoid at all costs, but doing so is essential for creating psychological safety.
As a form of self-preservation, many of us tend to hold back when we are wrong because doing so can devastate how others perceive us. To question a colleague’s or superior’s ideas or point out when they might be wrong is even riskier. According to Edmondson, “We are so busy managing impressions that we do not contribute to innovation.”
Team members can learn to accept being wrong by participating in open debates. The team could benefit from appointing a devil’s advocate or other roles to help with this process. When team members take turns “playing the devil’s advocate,” it gives them the freedom to disagree and debate without fear of repercussions, all while in character. Separating the person’s identity from their argument or opinion is crucial.
This allows the group to concentrate on the presented information and ideas rather than the person making them.
Final Thought
Having a psychologically safe environment is what an employee deserves to experience in the team. And this is also the most important thing a team should consider paying attention to achieve the success they seek.
There won’t be a successful company if no brains work together to develop novel ideas or strategies. So if these brains feel the psychological danger of preventing them from contributing ideas, the result may only be a failure for the team.
Psychological safety is one of the key elements needed to cultivate an effective and productive workplace. Without it, teams cannot foster a dynamic environment in which to generate new ideas and establish successful business strategies.
Each day, we must strive to ensure that our teams feel psychologically secure and comfortable voicing their opinions in order to see true success. Additionally, companies should create an equitable team climate where each employee is respected, heard, and valued—empowering them to reach their full potential.
