10 Oct Psychological Safety
There’s a moment that I hate.
It’s in the first meeting of professional settings when we “have” to go around the room and introduce ourselves.
Yuck.
Maybe for a certain group of people this is easy. But I have to say it’s not for the many, many people I’ve interacted with over the years. It’s why when I’m training I don’t have people do that. Instead, I look for other ways for people to share about themselves after having done some kind of exercise or interaction with one or two other people.
In the Becoming Safely Embodied groups I found that having members create an art project that they can talk about helps the best. And sometimes that wouldn’t happen ’til the second group, when people had some time to process the almost shock of entering a world where they would be seen.
In one of our groups, the question of safety comes up a lot. This isn’t physical safety but what the researcher Amy Edmondson calls “psychological safety.”
Edmondson distinguishes four kinds of psychological safety (I’ve changed her wording slightly):
- Belonging, feeling motivated and engaged
- Able to make mistakes and learn from them
- Feeling valued and a contributing
- Comfortable challenging the status quo
And she adds: “All without fear of being embarrassed, rejected, marginalized, or punished for taking risks, sharing ideas, or asking for feedback and direction.”
Perfect! Well said!
So much of these qualities of Psychological Safety are exactly the attachment needs so many of us didn’t have, back then, or for many even now.
It’s why people freeze when they have to say something about themselves. Or they dissociate. Or talk on and on.
How can we gauge whether a person or team or training is psychologically safe?
- Are they humble? Willing to hear from others? Or does the conversation always revert back to them and how special they and their work is?
- Do they establish clear norms and expectations?
- Is there a sense of predictability and fairness? Consistency in the way they interact and behave?
- Do they show appreciation for others? Acknowledge others, especially in teaching, do they build on the work of others in the field or is it as if they have channeled whatever they are teaching without acknowledging others?
- Are they actively listening and hearing others or do you have a sense of them waiting to speak?
- Is open communication encouraged?
So how does attachment theory bring forth psychological safety?
- Be willing to see the BEST in each other
- Include others. Reduce any cliquishness
- Respond, catching ourselves when we feel reactive
- Value relationships, open to repair in disruptions (with boundaries if necessary)
- Express delight in others, in ways they can integrate
Those are just some. Where do you find psychological safety? What contributes to you having psychological safety? Is this something that comes up in your work with people? How do you address it? or not?