Is Your Workplace Psychologically Safe?

“Psychological safety and courage are simply two sides of the same immensely valuable coin.  Both are – and will continue to be – needed in a complex and uncertain world.”  Amy Edmondson, PhD

What topics in your workplace aren’t talked about even though doing so would be important to you and others?  Or perhaps are talked about but only as part of side conversations?  Some common areas I regularly hear about from colleagues and care team members would include the relentless demands of work, the emotional toll such demands exact from us, the dynamic tension that can exist between “efficiency” or “quality” and patient-centered care, staffing challenges, workplace safety, financial stressors, and the impact of healthcare inequities on patient care, to name but a few. 

In that context, lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of “psychological safety”; what it is, why it is so often missing between colleagues, on teams, and in organizations (or even friendships and marriages!), and what can be done to address that.  Indeed, over the two years and counting of the COVID pandemic, I’ve heard numerous stories from colleagues around the country about a lack of psychological safety for talking about what really matters to them in their organizations and the negative impact this has had on patient care quality/safety, team effectiveness, and individual and group morale.  

Organizational psychologist Amy Edmondson, PhD, has written and spoken extensively on the subject of psychological safety in organizations.  She defines psychological safety as “ … a belief that the context is safe for interpersonal risk-taking – that speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes will be welcomed and valued even when I’m wrong.”  Research by she and others has established the presence of psychological safety as a critical driver of high-quality decision making, healthy group dynamics and interpersonal relationships, greater innovation, and more effective execution in organizations.  It is this sense of safety to engage in open, risk-free dialogue that many colleagues have yearned for but has been missing for them. 

But how can we both help create such cultures and feel free to express ourselves within them?  The Center for Creative Leadership notes some practical steps that each of us can take to help create optimal conditions for psychological safety.  They include making it an explicit priority within your group, facilitating everyone to speak up, establishing norms for how “failure” is addressed, and encouraging and creating space for new ideas (even wild ones).   Perhaps most importantly, groups should strive to embrace productive conflict by explicitly discussing the following questions:  How will we communicate our concerns about a process that isn’t working?  How can reservations be shared with each other in a respectful manner? And, What are our norms for managing conflicting perspectives?

This week, consider how you are contributing to the psychological safety of those you work with by being vulnerable, open, and curious.  Then reflect on those circumstances where you are holding back because you are not feeling safe to do so.  Your working to close that gap for yourself and others will help create conditions where everyone’s “best” can more likely emerge, individually and collectively.  It is only under those circumstances that we will be able to provide both exceptional patient care … and caring.  And that, after all, is why we’re here