This topic has always fascinated me and more recently some of the work I am doing brought this issue up. If you recall right from the beginning, the WiP Community has aimed to be a psychological safe place. Hence, it is a closed and by invitation only FB group. We wanted members to be able to share their views and personal experiences without any fear.

Incidentally, Psychological Safety was a term coined by Professor Amy C Edmondson of Harvard University basically to describe a workplace environment free from interpersonal fear. It is an unspoken belief shared by the members of a group that theirs is a safe space in which they can take interpersonal risks. These risks include speaking up when there’s a problem with the team dynamics and sharing creative ideas, among others.

When you have psychological safety in a group, a community or the workplace, people feel comfortable being themselves. They bring their full selves and feel okay laying all of themselves on the line.

In her book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth, Edmondson points out that people must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions out of left field, and brainstorm out loud in order to create a culture that truly innovates.

“People need to feel comfortable speaking up, asking naïve questions, and disagreeing with the way things are in order to create ideas that make a real difference,” “Psychological safety at work doesn’t mean that everybody is nice all the time. It means that you embrace the conflict and you speak up, knowing that your team has your back, and you have their backs.”

Some strategies to create a psychological safe place at your workplace is if you can show the people around that you listen, are attentive, engaged, understanding, open to feedback and always attempting to build trust. It helps if you are self-aware and encourage others to be too. Before encouraging team participation, do ensure as a leader that all members of the team believe that others on the team will not embarrass, reject, or punish them for speaking up. People take time to test the waters before they contribute, sometimes they want to make sure they are accepted. As a leader you may need to ensure negativity in the team is nipped in the bud.

(This article first appeared on the WiP page on 10th October 2022. I am the founder of WiP which is a cohort of like minded talented women who help each other grow in a fun filled, judgement free manner!)