Several months ago, I answered a call for guest speakers. As a long-tenured therapist, toxic workplace survivor, and Fearless Organization Certified Practitioner, I suggested a workshop on one of my favorite topics: psychological safety. The HR person loved the idea, so we scheduled it.
Fast forward to a few months later, when, thinking I was about to dust off and personalize a psychological safety workshop I’d already created, my internal sponsor for the event casually mentioned:
We can’t say “psychological safety.”
Cue record scratch. In my presentation about psychological safety, I can’t say psychological safety? Well, isn’t that a spicy meatball? When I asked more questions, the answer I got was: “Our leaders think that’s too clinical.”
So, here I am doing a little PR for psychological safety (PS PR?). It’s a very real term that I didn’t make up. I’ll share what it is, what it isn’t, and why it’s important. I’d love to tell you why it’s crucial for inclusion and belonging, but I don’t know if I should tempt fate with four dirty words in this current climate. 😉
Let’s see if I can get to a more “leader-friendly” term by the end of this post.
What Psychological Safety Is
Amy Edmondson coined the term in the late 1900s, and one of her definitions is:
A belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
When you read that, does it seem clinical? Or does it seem like… what everyone’s experience at work should be?
So, if you wanted to bring me in because your workplace isn’t like that, we can call it whatever we want. Highly Collaborative Environment? Innovation Station?
Edmondson and Michaela Kerrissey already wrote a great article called “What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety,” which is worth checking out. But I’ll give you the Cliff Notes. Psychological safety is not:
- A policy
- The same as being “nice”
- Synonymous with job security
- Mutually exclusive to high performance
- Only about what leaders do/don’t do
- Getting your (or anyone’s) way
Let me know which of these you’d want to hear more about. Better yet, hire me to tell your leaders all about it.
Why Bother?
I wish leaders cared about psychological safety (and DEIBA) just because caring for people is the right thing to do. But I’ve been around too long to build a business on wishes and dreams. So let’s talk about the relationship between psychological safety and high performance.
Before I was a therapist, I was an artist, of the theater variety, to be specific. My very first acting teacher said something that has lived rent-free in my head for… let’s just say, longer than some of y’all have been alive. She said:
“In order to succeed, you must not be afraid to fail.”
If I had to boil psychological safety down to two ingredients, they’d be:
- People aren’t afraid to fail, and
- They feel empowered to speak up with ideas and concerns.
The last time I presented on this topic, I shared this slide. Do you know the answer?
