How to build psychological safety in challenging times

 “For knowledge work to flourish, the workplace must be one where people feel able to share their knowledge! This means sharing concerns, questions, mistakes, and half-formed ideas.”

Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organisation

Why psychological safety. Why now.

It's been a tough decade for UK Universities. From the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic to rapid technological advancements; and from changes in student demographics to shifting financial models, it's no surprise that we find ourselves experiencing high levels of uncertainty. Uncertainty about our own futures, our teams, our institution, the sector.. and perhaps the world.

Amid these very real challenges, one key factor has emerged as an essential foundation for the wellbeing, and therefore success of university communities, and that is psychological safety.

In a psychologically safe environment, we feel that we can speak up, take risks, make mistakes, and express our opinions without fear of judgment, ridicule, or reprisal. Psychological safety is a critical ingredient for fostering innovation, mental wellbeing and inclusivity.

As Amy C. Edmondson illustrates in her book, the Fearless Organisation, we do our best work when we find ourselves in the environment of high psychological safety coupled with high standards. If only one of these elements is provided, we will be operating in the comfort, apathy or anxiety zone. Now, you may be thinking, some organisations and leaders are much hotter on high standards, rather than psychological safety!  This could be because the concept of psychological safety may feel a little elusive to some leaders. Yet there is a very accessible and impactful tool  that enables you to start building a transparent culture of psychological safety in your team (more on that at the bottom of this page!)

Edmondson's simple framework provides powerful insights for us as contributors and as leaders- of people, teams, projects. As we are moving through the times of uncertainty, how can we ensure that we are, indeed building psychologically safe spaces, teams and environments?

                                                (source: Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organisation)

Transparency builds trust

Transparent and open communication will not only earn you your team's respect, it will make people feel more secure, safe and clear about their own roles, thus opening up space for innovation, collaboration and high performance. This is particularly vital in the times of uncertainty and change. Transparent and timely decision making, regular updates and open channel of communication will go a long way, to put your team in a more resourceful state. People who understand why and how decisions were made, are more likely to feel heard and engaged.

Setting clear expectations, admitting mistakes and modelling vulnerability are also a great place to start building psychological safety. These behaviours will come more naturally if you are feeling psychologically safe!  Role modelling is everything and your team will only feel safe to do something if you are demonstrating and encouraging openness, healthy risk-taking and courage. As Edmondson puts it, “Finding out that you are wrong is even more valuable than being right, because you are learning... Just as learning to ride a bike entails the physical discomfort of skinned knees or bruised elbows, creating a stunningly original movie requires the psychological pain of failure".

Create tangible processes and practices to encourage feedback and seek team members' opinions. In practice this can look as regular feedback loops; acting on feedback and making it known; listening to understand rather than respond (consider Otto Sharmer's four levels of listening).

Notice, acknowledge, recognise, praise. Actively foster a team culture where collaboration is prioritized over competition. When individuals feel supported rather than set against one another, trust and psychological safety naturally thrive. Recognition makes people feel seen and heard; it creates a positive reinforcement and as a result, increases motivation and engagement.

Promoting resilience in students and staff

In the times of rapid change, the most resourceful and resilient teams and individuals will be driving the University's mission forward. Resilience is a key trait that allows individuals to come through from setbacks, adapt to new challenges and thrive. however, resilience is difficult to cultivate in environments that are punitive or dismissive of mistakes and failures. Feeling psychologically safe is a key protective factor in building our resilience.

Building a culture of inclusion and belonging

People can only feel that they belong; that they are truly included, if they feel psychologically safe. When we feel safe to share their experiences, perspectives, and concerns, we can see our community emerge, with a diversity of voices and lived experiences, reflecting our true culture, our needs and possibilities, as a team; as a university; as a sector.

Female leaders

Psychological safety is everybody's business. That said, I firmly believe that female leaders can play a particularly powerful role in fostering collaboration and trust. Female leaders score higher across competencies such as collaboration, team and relationship building, communication and inclusivity - all of which are important building blocks of psychological safety. Their ability to build trust and encourage collective problem-solving can strengthen teams and enhance university-wide efforts to address uncertainty.

How to build a fearless University

1.     Make psychological safety an explicit priority

2.     Invest time and effort into creating a true culture of belonging and inclusion

3.     Consider what your team needs

4.     Create mechanisms that empower each team member to speak up. Show clearly that you are listening

5.     Reframe failure as experimentation. Build in safe spaces to fail. Make it known

6.     Embrace and promote sincere, constructive disagreement (you may be familiar with Kim Scott's Radical candor!)

7.     Intentionally acknowledge and celebrate wins

 5 things you can do today:   

1.     Check in with your team. Have a conversation about psychological safety

2.     Get in touch to explore how I can help. I support leaders and teams in building psychologically safe environments

3.     Bonus! A chance to request a complementary team building activity: Fearless Organisation scan + leadership and team debrief. Contact me to find out more

4.     Take a free fearless organisation scan

5.     Watch Amy Edmondson's TED talk

Dr Maria Kukhareva is Director of Leadership Innovation at Women-Space Leadership. She is a Resilience expert, published author, TEDx Speaker and coach. With over twenty years in the UK Higher Education sector, she has enjoyed a rich range of academic, research and professional roles.