Psychological safety at work is the foundation of a healthy and top-performing team. When we feel psychologically safe at work, we feel as though we can speak up, contribute, and make mistakes. Yet, just 26% of employees say they’re currently experiencing psychological safety at work. Clearly, organizations have a ways to go to cultivate this critical ingredient of success.
A work culture where employees feel they can’t speak up is one paralyzed by fear and silence. Conversely, a psychologically safe workplace encourages learning, authenticity, engagement, and excellence. Sound like something you want for your team? Let’s look at what top experts say about creating psychological safety at work, as well as the four major methods to foster it.
What is psychological safety?
In her groundbreaking book on the concept, “The Fearless Organization,” Amy C. Edmondson defines psychological safety as “the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”
Author Timothy Clark breaks down psychological safety into four different stages, defining it as: “a condition in which you feel (1) included, (2) safe to learn, (3) safe to contribute, and (4) safe to challenge the status quo — all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way.”
What does it look like?
Imagine this scenario. You’re in a meeting. During the course of the discussion, multiple acronyms are used. You don’t know what they mean, but no one else is raising their hand. Are these acronyms organization-specific? Or are they internationally well-known in the industry? You assume everyone knows their meanings, but that you’ll look uninformed in front of your peers and superiors if you ask. You become self-conscious and more concerned about the impression you are giving off than understanding what is going on in the room. You tell yourself to research it later and say nothing.
If you’ve ever experienced this, not to worry. It’s a common experience. People often don’t feel psychologically safe at work because something about that environment is not right.
Psychological safety is the ability to ask questions and speak up with pertinent ideas, thoughts, and doubts. It’s having permission to be candid with your team across all levels. When psychological safety at work exists, team members feel comfortable – even obligated – to speak truth in the face of power.
When this candor exists, rather than sit back and watch mistakes and errors happen in silence, team members will speak up. People will talk about problems, thereby creating regular opportunities for learning, innovation, and the sharing of knowledge. It’s an environment that empowers people and builds equality.
Misconceptions about psychological safety
Experts in psychological safety at work are careful to avoid confusion by not just defining what it is, but pointing out what it’s not.
Psychological safety is not:
- Being nice and holding back. Psychological safety isn’t about putting on a pair of kid gloves and avoiding conflict. It doesn’t mean giving unconditional support and agreeing just to avoid differences in ideas. In fact, it’s just the opposite. It’s the ability to be open and honest.
- An excuse to be mean or indecent. We still need to treat each other with respect, inclusion, and belonging. That means you can’t be offensive under the guise of “candor” or “brutal honesty.”
- Permission to slack off. It’s not a synonym for a relaxing, low-effort environment.
- A question of personality. It’s not about erasing or overcoming individual characteristics like shyness or a lack of confidence. Psychological safety is an external state — the environment of the team.
- About lowering performance standards. Psychological safety is the foundation for a challenging, honest, and collaborative environment in which people can be accountable for achieving ambitious goals.
Impression management
The concept of psychological safety draws from another concept found in sociology and psychology: impression management.
Impression management is the idea that people will try to control how they are perceived by others in order to achieve certain goals. People will work hard to convey specific messages about their ability or characteristics so that people will respond favorably to them.
This is a common, everyday experience for all of us. At work, no one wants to appear:
- Ignorant, so we don’t ask questions
- Incompetent, so we don’t admit weakness or mistake
- Disruptive, so we don’t offer opinions
- Negative, so we don’t critique the status quo
Psychological safety is the remedy for this common social phenomenon. It allows us to build a more innovative, engaged, and productive team.
Psychological safety at work stats
Psychological safety at work has profound implications for an organization's productivity, leadership, and profitability. Consider the research.
- Managers that are highly regarded by their employees have an average psychological safety rating of 84%. Mid-to-low rated managers have an average psychological safety rating of 36%.
- $4.3 million more in revenue per year is generated by managers whose overall skills are rated higher in areas like psychological safety.
- Workers who felt psychologically unsafe on the job were 80% more likely to report they had been injured at work, requiring medical attention and/or missed days of work.
- Workplaces with high rates of psychological safety are 50% more productive.
- Employees of workplaces with high rates of psychological safety report 74% less stress.
Psychological safety as a means to excellence
Organizations learn by doing. Rarely do company leaders have everything figured out before jumping headlong into a new project, product, or process. Small, iterative cycles of trial and error plus learning are the basis of methodologies like Agile and Scrum. Amidst this backdrop of an uncertainty of outcomes, psychological safety is critical in order to build an environment of learning and innovation.
“The Fearless Organization” author Amy Edmondson describes how performance relates to psychological safety through “zones.” When psychological safety occurs in conjunction with high standards, this is where high learning and high performance occurs.
Conversely, low psychological safety and low standards creates an environment of apathy where there is no commitment to excellence. High standards but low psychological safety leads to the anxiety zone where fear thwarts actual performance.
Measuring psychological safety at work
How do you know if your team has psychological safety? You can measure it by surveying your team with specific questions on a Likert scale (levels of agreement or disagreement) such as:
- Mistakes are held against you. If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you.
- I feel able to discuss problems and tough issues with the team.
- People who are different are rejected by the team.
- I feel able to take risks on this team.
- It's easy to ask for help from others on the team.
- No one on the team intentionally hinders my efforts.
- I feel my abilities are valued and incorporated in the team.
International keynote speaker and author Duena Blomstrom suggests that the following statements must all be true in psychologically safe environments:
- We are passionate and care.
- We are ourselves.
- We are connected to each other.
- We practice empathy.
- We are flexible and resilient.
- We experiment and grow through failure.
- We are not afraid of appearing negative, incompetent, ignorant, or disruptive.
- We speak up.
Consequences of poor psychological safety
When psychological safety at work does not exist, there are a number of serious consequences that can result in everything from a loss of revenue to a loss of life.
1. Workplace silence
When people fear they will be embarrassed, judged, or otherwise look bad, they won’t speak up. Employees will hold back even when they know what they have to say will benefit the customer or the company. A study by Gallup found that while 9-in-10 employees say they would report unethical behavior, only 4-in-10 actually do.
The result? Everyone loses with workplace silence. Opportunities for improvement are missed, employees feel bad, and nothing changes.
2. High turnover
When psychological safety is low, talent will head for the door. Workers are 10 times more likely to leave their jobs due to a toxic environment than they are for compensation. Studies have shown that efforts to improve psychological safety resulted in a 27% reduction in turnover.
3. Avoidable failure
The most profound negative consequence of poor psychological safety is failure. When employees can’t admit to mistakes or discuss errors because there is no psychological safety, these problems won’t get addressed. In her book, Amy Edmondson recounts that a famed aircraft collision on the Canary Islands in 1977 could have been avoided if the first officer felt safe enough to question the actions of his more senior captain. Instead, the captain made a mistake, the first officer didn’t want to question him, and 583 people lost their lives as a result.
Positive impacts
Psychological safety is a key element in adaptive, engaged, and high-performing teams.
1. Learning behavior
Employees demonstrate behavior that’s conducive to learning in workplaces where they are able to speak up, give ideas, and report errors. Employees are able to talk about mistakes, learn from them, and share knowledge. Psychologically safe environments have:
- 67% higher probability that workers will apply a new skill on the job
- 26% improved skills readiness because employees learn faster in psychologically safe environments
2. Workplace engagement
When employees feel their voice is heard and valued, they are going to help in the improvement of quality and processes. In workplaces with psychological safety:
Psychological safety also allows remote and geographically dispersed teams to improve their engagement and communication. An Australian study showed that psychological safety improved solutions to challenges such as virtual communication, cultural diversity, different time zones, and changing team members.
3. Excellence
Psychological safety is critical in making teams work and perform well. A long-term nine-year study at Google for over 180 teams found that a key reason certain teams performed better than others was psychological safety. They found that psychological safety crucially underpinned other important aspects such as clear goals, dependable coworkers, and meaningful work.
How to create psychological safety at work
There are many psychological safety activities a manager can incorporate in the workplace. Some are big and some are small, but each activity can have a tremendous impact on employees' sense of safety and openness.
1. Frame the work as a learning process.
Particularly as a manager, it’s important to characterize your team's work as a learning process without spotlighting errors in execution. When errors happen, don’t try to blame the incompetence or incapability of team members. Instead, talk about the complexity of the processes, the difficulty of the work, or the uncertainty of the challenges with which you’re tasked.
Say things like, “This isn’t easy and we need everyone’s talents to accomplish XYZ for our customers/patients/etc.” This helps team members understand that speaking up fits the motivations of the project.
2. Admit your own imperfection.
No one will admit mistakes to a manager who’s a know-it-all. To invite participation, it’s important that a manager practices situational humility. A manager can be confident and knowledgeable but, in specific situations, still express a sense of not having all the answers. Say simple things like, “I don’t know” or “I may have missed something — I’d like to hear your thoughts.” This creates confidence and space that an employee’s voice is welcome.
3. Demonstrate curiosity
Demonstrate to employees exactly what speaking up and communicating openly looks like. Ask a lot of questions. Ask open-ended questions that start with “how,” “what,” or “why.” Don’t fall back into assuming you know best and mandating what to do. Your questions should inspire focused thought and sharing from the listener. Ask things like: “Does anyone have a different opinion?” “Is there anything we’re missing here?”
Instead of asking “are there any questions?” ask “what questions do you have?” Make sure there are forums like committees and meetings where employees are regularly invited to express their voice.
4. Respond productively
Express appreciation when people speak up. It can be as simple as “I’m glad you mentioned that” or “thanks for speaking up” or “I’m sure others had the same question.”
Destigmatize failure by acknowledging that it’s a necessary part of innovation. When employees admit to an error, empower them to go back and fix the problem and learn to do it right next time.
Psychological safety is not necessarily harmed by sanctions. If sanctions such as termination or demotion are justified, it can, in fact, reinforce psychological safety. For example, terminating a boss that sexually harasses or physically assaults an employee will reinforce a sense of fairness.
Examples of psychological safety at work
No psychological safety. A hotel manager is training a new front desk staff person. The customer has made a reservation through a third-party booking website and appears to have been lost in the hotel’s system. What’s more, the hotel is fully booked. The manager’s frustration with the new employee is building. The manager is impatiently scoffing and tapping their foot. Eventually, the manager steps in and arrests control of the computer from the new staff member to solve the issue.
Impact: This experience will negatively impact the employee’s psychological safety. They will not feel comfortable asking questions and may even hide problems in the future to avoid contact with the manager.
With psychological safety. An apprentice air conditioning tech is on her first installation house call with her supervisor. The apprentice is allowed to observe initially. The supervisor asks questions about what tools and supplies they’ll need and where they should begin. The apprentice is allowed to participate in the installation without being exclusively responsible. The supervisor encourages questions and responds positively when questions are organically asked. The supervisor relays stories of errors they made themselves early in their career. On the next few installations, the process is repeated with increasing autonomy for the apprentice who is eventually allowed to be fully independent.
Impact: The experience lays the foundation for psychological safety. The air conditioning tech will feel comfortable asking future questions and approaching their supervisor with any needs she might have.
