Psych safety is much more than a check-box exercise.
A dynamic and delicate variable
A dynamic and delicate variable
A dynamic and delicate variable
Psychological safety is feeling included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge the status quo and not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, alternate views, questions, or mistakes.
For example, is this a place where new ideas are welcomed and built upon? Or picked apart and ridiculed?
Will my colleagues embarrass or penalise me for offering a different point of view, or for admitting I don’t understand something?
Not surprisingly, psychological safety is a dynamic and delicate variable that's hard to build and easy to destroy.
Create a positive work culture
A dynamic and delicate variable
A dynamic and delicate variable
The level of psychological safety in a team is the central measure of that team’s culture, health, and vitality.
Positive work cultures have a dramatic effect on the mental well-being of their employees and contribute significantly to workplace satisfaction. It also enables creativity, innovation, good decision-making, and better solutions.
Practically speaking, this might look like a team where people are more likely to discuss mistakes, share ideas, ask for, and receive feedback, and experiment.
Sounds like a great team! Perhaps, then, it shouldn’t be surprising that psychological safety is also strongly linked to employee satisfaction!
The bottom line is, if you can take risks without your team beating you up, you’ll be more likely to succeed.
Manage your safety risks
A dynamic and delicate variable
Manage your safety risks
The costs of NOT providing psychological safety are pretty high. Not only will you experience loss through absenteeism, but there will also likely be lost productivity, impeded business growth, and compensation claims.
As well, you run the risk of losing skilled staff (or not attracting them), your customer experience will most likely drop, and you risk damage to your reputation.
The other biggie is breaching the Workplace Health and Safety regulations.
And even more than that (yes, it gets bigger), individuals in leadership roles may also be liable for failing to exercise due diligence in a timely way when they respond to incidences in the workplace.
What Psych Safety is and what it's not!
Source: Humaninterest
What’s the difference between psychological safety and psychosocial risks?
Psychosocial risks refer to work-related factors that may have negative effects on an employee’s mental health and well-being due to job demands like excessive workloads, time pressure, low job control, role ambiguity or conflict, poor supervisor support, job insecurity, and inadequate support for work-life balance.
Psychological safety refers to a work environment in which employees feel valued, respected, and able to speak up. Where employees feel safe to express themselves and take risks without fear of negative consequences such as humiliation, punishment or discrimination.
Manage psychological safety in the workplace by getting everyone on the same page.
Since ISO45003 shone a spotlight on psychosocial risk and the WHS Act highlighted psychosocial hazards, there have been many webinars helping organisations understand how to manage it in the workplace.
If you're looking for something much more interactive, engaging, and with a practical edge, then please reach out to us.
We've been facilitating workshops on psychological safety since 2020 for a variety of industries and organisations.
About Us
Linda Manaena
Leadership Specialist, Coach, Facilitator, 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ Practitioner, Genos® Emotional Intelligence, Resilience@Work® and EDISC® Behaviour Practitioner
Nicole Stafford
Leadership and Communications Specialist, Coach, Facilitator, 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ Practitioner, EQ, HBDI® and EDISC® Behaviour Practitioner.