Psychological Safety Is Key to Successful Training & Development
Participants adopt new behaviors from training and development when evidence-based content, engaging facilitation, use of adult learning methods and a culture of psychological safety is present.
What is psychological safety and why is it foundational? Dr. Amy Edmondson refers to it as, “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated by speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”
You’ve no doubt heard the term psychological safety given all the buzz about it in the training, learning and organizational development literature. It’s the basis for a healthy team culture. Without it, teams and organizations wither, and organizations may make the headlines for unwanted reasons; with psychological safety, they’re enabled to flourish. Although Dr. Amy Edmondson doesn’t take credit for coining the term, she’s largely responsible for mainstreaming it.
While conducting Ph.D. research regarding medical error rates and teamwork in hospitals, she hypothesized that more effective teams would have less errors. By contrast, and to her astonishment, she found the opposite; that is, the most effective teams reported more errors. Why? They were not afraid to report them. This inspired further research and had huge implications for patient care, health outcomes, team culture and morale.
What’s the implication for training and development? When the seeds of new habit formation are planted in a psychologically safe learning culture, they’re more apt to sprout. If psychological safety isn’t present, why bother?
The really great news? Cultivating psychological safety doesn’t take budget or resources; it simply takes intentionality and consistency. Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armour, states “Trust is built in drops and lost in buckets.” So is psychological safety.
How strong is psychological safety in your culture?
How can a leader know if it’s present? Dr. Edmondson developed a pulse check to help leaders understand the degree of perceived psychological safety within their team. Review below and rate as True or False. If you’re unsure, it may as well be false.
- If you make a mistake on this team, it is not held against you.
- Members of this team are encouraged to bring up problems and tough issues.
- People on this team accept others for being different.
- It is safe to take a risk on this team.
- It isn’t difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
- No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines others’ efforts.
- Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.
*Modified from https://hbr.org/2023/02/what-is-psychological-safety
Interpretation: For each item, answer “True” or “False/Unsure.” The greater the number of “True” responses, the higher the psychological safety: vice versa. Be curious about any “False” responses and consider how you could move them to “True.”
How to improve psychological safety
Increase psychological safety by prioritizing such things as emphasizing why every employee’s voice is important, encouraging leaders to admit how they’ve learned from their mistakes, and proactively seeking and responding to employee input. Research by Harvard Business Review suggests employees value authenticity over the illusion of perfection in their leaders.
Fostering psychological safety isn’t about “being nice.” It’s about being authentic and modeling vulnerability; it’s also the basis for effective DEI strategies. Third party consultants don’t have this degree of influence at the team level, but team leaders do; they directly influence perceived psychological safety.
On that note, Dr. Edmondson’s research supports that psychological safety is most effectively cultivated at the team level…even if it doesn’t exist organizationally (which is way more complex). This is great news for leaders; they can have a direct effect on the seven items above simply by being deliberate with how they consistently show up moment by moment, day-by-day, week-by-week with their teams.
The cost? Zero dollars, 100% effort. Moreover, it’s an investment with almost guaranteed returns.
Leaders who can get to “True” for the items above are nurturing a learning and growth mindset. According to Dr. Edmondson, this mindset promotes vulnerability, sharing and learning from mistakes, risk taking, trust, supportive and positive relationships, improved wellbeing and, equally pushes the boundaries of innovation. Who doesn’t want that?
If this sounds desirable to you, it’s in our sandbox. Contact us to learn how to build skills in leaders to promote psychological safety, including incorporating ‘plug-and-play’ psychological safety training into your program.
Jeannie Jones is a senior consultant supporting PPS International Limited. Jeannie specializes in inspiring and empowering healthy high performance. She enjoys working with teams and cohorts and believes leadership is the “X factor” bridging employee and organizational excellence. She infuses over 30 years of award-winning experience in her consulting and facilitation. Her niche spaces are leadership development, cultivating a positive work culture, mental fitness, coaching, as well as mental health/wellbeing & resilience.
