Psychologically safe workplaces

What is psychological safety?

Psychological safety is the feeling that you can voice your thoughts and opinions when things go wrong, when you are unsure about something or when you disagree with how something is done, without the fear that you will be criticised, judged or punished for doing so. It’s common to see things in the workplace which you think could or should have been done differently. It could be when a procedure doesn’t go as planned or when you think of a more efficient way of completing a routine task. You may raise the issue at a team meeting, confident others will listen respectfully to you, or you might keep it to yourself, worried about how others will respond. Raising the issue would suggest you feel psychologically safe within your team, keeping it to yourself because you’re worried about the response you’ll get, suggests you’re not.

Feeling psychologically safe means feeling confident and comfortable to voice your thoughts and opinions without fear of judgement or criticism enabling staff to communicate with one another, helping to foster bonds and supportive networks, and learn from each other’s knowledge, experience, past successes and crucially, mistakes It describes a team culture characterised by inclusivity and mutual trust , respect and support which builds a sense of safety and belonging. In psychologically safe environments, all team members feel included and valued. It helps to ensure we are all delivering the highest quality of safe care possible.

Why is psychological safety important?

Fundamentally, psychological safety is important because it fosters better functioning teams which support better quality care and better mental health and wellbeing of staff.

Psychological safety helps to build healthy and vibrant teams and organisations where everyone working there feels that they are uniquely valued. We work in uncertain, complex and dynamic systems and it takes curiosity and humility to learn, develop and innovate. We cannot do this in a climate of fear, where voices are silenced for fear of how they will be received, where speaking up carries the risk of being made to feel ignorant or incompetent. In a psychologically safe climate, all voices are welcomed.

Psychological safety improves communication between team members, leading to knowledge sharing, error reporting, and learning opportunities. It encourages staff members to innovate and think creatively, helping them adapt to problems as they arise and formulate novel solutions to solve them. Psychological safety can also help improve staff wellbeing by creating a more inclusive working environment. We know, for example, that for staff working in high-risk, trauma-exposed roles, workplace culture can have as big an impact on wellbeing as trauma exposure. Psychological safety within the workplace can bring with it a sense of cohesion and camaraderie, helping to protect staff from some of the potentially challenging and risky aspects of their role.

From an organisational perspective, psychologically safe workplaces represent an opportunity to get the most from your team. Psychologically safe teams empower staff leading to greater staff engagement which is key to good care quality, staff retention, quality improvement, innovation and staff satisfaction.

How do you develop psychological safety in the workplace?

Developing a culture of psychological safety isn’t the responsibility of any one person, it’s a collective effort where everyone can play a part. Everyone can contribute to a climate of psychological safety in the workplace by being curious, asking questions and listening with respect and openness to responses. Psychologically safe workplaces prioritise relationships and connection recognising the key role of mutual respect and cooperation. Psychologically safe workplaces prioritise workplace cultures where all voices are welcome.

As a manager or leader, you set the tone for your team, department or organisation. How you operate, the workplace culture you promote and what your staff think of you will have a big influence on how psychologically safe they feel. Being supportive, trustworthy, and open about what you expect will help, whilst also having the humility to recognise and communicate that you will not know everything empowers staff to contribute. Psychological safety is expected to better flourish when leaders both allow and actively encourage the contribution of others, communicate honestly and clearly, provide support to their staff, encourage innovation and inspire growth, as well as modelling the behaviour they want to see. Lead with humility, and recognise that you can retain your position as a leader while accepting that you won’t know everything and valuing the contribution of others.

Leadership style therefore plays a key role in the level of psychological safety experienced by your team. Leadership which emphasises compassion, relationships, honesty, transparency and team working tends to lead to enhanced psychological safety. Everyone working in health, social care, or social work in Scotland can make use of Leading to Change, who provide a range of leadership development programmes, opportunities and support for staff at all levels. You can find out more about Leading to Change by visiting their website.

One specific leadership style which may be helpful when trying to boost psychological safety is compassionate leadership. This involves building relationships with your colleagues, listening to them and empathising with them, understanding the challenges they face and supporting them in working through these. You can read more about compassionate leadership in this article from the King’s Fund. You can also watch this webinar recording from NHS Education for Scotland on Collective and Compassionate leadership.

Creating a culture where staff feel that they matter and that they’re being looked out for goes a long way to enhancing psychological safety but it’s not all down to leaders. Everyone has a role to play. Colleagues checking in on one another and being available for each other when they need a bit of support or someone to talk to, can make a big difference when it comes to feeling that they matter. We call this peer support, and you can learn more about it and ways to encourage it in your workplace by following this link. The benefits of peer support don’t stem just from the opportunity to talk through challenges with someone working in a similar role, they come from the relationships that are formed between team members. It is these same relationships and the support they provide, which can be crucial to feeling psychologically safe.

There is an ambition for Scotland, driven by the National Trauma Transformation Programme, to be a trauma informed nation, and so you are likely to be familiar with the term Trauma Informed Practice. Safety, both physical and psychological, is a central tenet of the trauma informed approach, so the good news is that if this is something you are developing, then there’s a good chance you’re well on your way to having a psychologically safe workplace. Psychological safety isn’t something separate or an extra task for your to-do list. It is best thought of as a beneficial outcome of a workplace environment which is supportive of good wellbeing. You can find more information on trauma informed practice and how to implement it in the workplace by reading this article.

As we’ve described, psychological safety is all about feeling able to speak up. Any process which can be implemented which encourages staff to speak up and give honest feedback about their own or their colleagues performance, in a safe and respectful way, will therefore help in its development. One such process is reflective practice. Put simply, reflective practice is the process of reflecting on your performance, identifying what has gone well and what could be improved upon. You can find out more about reflective practice, and how to implement reflective practice groups, in our reflective practice toolkit.

Final thoughts

Psychological safety is one outcome which you can expect to experience when the workplace environment is supportive of staff wellbeing, when the basic building blocks of good wellbeing are in place and looked after. These building blocks include supportive peer relationships, caring and compassionate leaders, adequate materials and training to do the job well, access to learning and development opportunities, and an organisational culture defined by mutual trust, value and respect. Take care of these and there’s a good chance psychological safety will take care of itself.