Optimise your teams through psychological safety.

Psychological safety, the belief that you can express thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of negative consequences such as ridicule, embarrassment, or punishment has been found to be essential to the success of an organisation. This has been shown recently in research from Google’s Project Aristotle where psychological safety was found to be the single most important factor for effective teams.

Now, with the lack of equity, diversity, and accessibility, falling levels of retention and productivity and a rise in burnout all pointing to people feeling unsafe and unhappy in their workplaces, surely, it’s time for the psychologically safe workplace to play a key role in optimising teams.

In a psychologically safe environment, people feel comfortable taking interpersonal risks, sharing their opinions, and being vulnerable without the fear of being judged or criticised. This sense of safety promotes open communication, collaboration and innovation within a group or organisation. People are more likely to engage in constructive dialogue, provide feedback, and contribute to problem-solving efforts which also enhances creativity, productivity, and overall team performance.

To be effective psychological safety needs to be taken up by employees at all levels in an organisation. Team culture reflects the actions of its leaders so to establish and maintain a psychologically safe workplace, leaders must consistently adopt inclusive behaviours to build new team norms over time and identify when an employee’s threat responses are triggered, and how to effectively deal with them.

Overall, psychological safety creates a supportive, inclusive, and collaborative work environment that enables teams and individuals to perform at their best, contribute their unique perspectives, and drive organisational success. Conversely, when psychological safety is lacking, people may hesitate to speak up, withhold their opinions, and avoid taking risks. This can lead to a culture of silence, poor decision-making, and stifled innovation within a team or organisation.

By prioritising psychological safety, organisations can create an environment where individuals feel valued, empowered, and motivated to contribute their best, leading to higher levels of collaboration, innovation, and overall well-being.