Psychological safety is key to a happy workplace. According to a study done by the Harvard Business School, “Companies that have more psychological safety are more likely to have employees who speak up about problems and less likely to experience turnover.”
The effects of a psychologically safe workplace are wide-ranging and can eliminate many underlying sources of conflict. These include 1) Safety for those who feel different or vulnerable, 2) Openness to new ideas, 3) Voice given to minority opinions and 4) A consistent understanding of what is expected from everyone. Here are some ways to foster this in your company.
Why is Psychological Safety Important?
Psychological safety is important because it directly impacts workplace relationships and how people work together. When people feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to voice their opinions and share their thoughts. They are also more likely to set healthy boundaries, take risks and be creative in the workplace. This leads to a better workplace where employees can comfortably express themselves without fear of judgment or retaliation.
The effects of a psychologically safe workplace go beyond just creating better relationships between employees. It can also help eliminate many underlying sources of conflict that contribute to low morale, high turnover rates, and other adverse effects on the organization.
In order for an organization to foster psychological safety, it must foster an environment in which employees feel free from judgment, support their colleagues through tough times, trust one another’s judgment and give each other feedback when appropriate; all while maintaining a sense of company values such as authenticity and respect for others.
How to Establish Psychological Safety
Psychological safety is an important factor in creating a happy workplace culture. There are many ways to create a psychologically safe environment, but the Harvard study found that “the most important thing seems to be creating a feeling of psychological safety.”
One way to establish this is by communicating openly. This means employees should feel comfortable talking about what’s going on in their work and personal lives. Open communication can also be established by listening. If employees feel like they have someone who listens to them and who understands them, they’ll feel more comfortable opening up. A third way would be providing everyone the opportunity to contribute and share ideas. This allows people to voice their opinions without fear of being shot down or judged.
Ultimately, fostering an environment of psychological safety can be done through practicing these three things: open communication, listening, and giving everyone the opportunity to share their thoughts and voice their opinions.
What happens when you have a psychologically safe workplace?
The effects of a psychologically safe workplace are widespread and can eliminate many underlying sources of conflict. Here are some ways to foster this in your company.
Create an Inclusive Culture
One way to foster psychological safety is by creating an inclusive culture. You should provide opportunities for people with different backgrounds and experiences to connect with each other and share their perspectives. This also means that you need to make sure that there are opportunities for people to give input on important decisions. Research shows that high-quality relationships build trust, which leads to increased effectiveness in the workplace.
Provide Opportunities for Feedback
Another way to foster psychological safety is by providing opportunities for feedback. The best way to do this is through regular check-ins between leaders and their teams about progress on projects and their work environment as a whole. It’s also important for employees within one department or workgroup to be able to give feedback about how they’re working together – so if you have weekly team meetings, encourage everyone to speak up! If possible, try conducting small experiments where your team tries out new rules or policies (such as flexible telecommuting), so they can weigh in on what works best.
Why Is It So Hard to Maintain?
It might sound like a simple thing to create a psychologically safe workplace, but it’s not. In fact, some people might say there are too many psychological safety issues in the world for one to be created. It’s hard to maintain because it needs constant work and effort from everyone involved. If you have employees from different countries or cultures, then that person might not understand what is being discussed as well as someone who was born and raised in America (for example). These differences can lead to misunderstandings which can lead to conflicts.
In addition to cultural differences, it can also be difficult for employees with disabilities. This is because of the stigma that surrounds disabilities and those who have them. People fearing that they will be discriminated against or refused employment due to their disability is one factor why it’s hard to maintain psychological safety in the workplace. But these fears stem from not understanding what exactly a disability is or how they affect an individual’s life on a day-to-day basis.
Conclusion
Psychological safety, or simply put, the feeling of being safe and secure at work, is one of the most important things that can happen in a workplace. Psychological safety has been linked to more innovation in an organization, improved employee engagement, and higher job satisfaction.
But how does one maintain psychological safety? The first step to fostering psychological safety is to make sure that there isn’t any kind of discrimination or harassment happening. The second step is to make sure that employees are getting evaluated on their performance and not on how they look or who they are. The third step is to make sure that employees feel like they know how to set healthy boundaries and can bring up any issues to their leaders or managers. Establishing these three steps will go a long way in helping you create a happy workplace.
