Nurturing a Culture of Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tomlinchuck.

And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.

Hey, welcome to Quick Take. I'm your host, suzy Tomlinchuck, along with my great co-host, james Capps. How are you, james?

I am super great. How about yourself?

I'm great, I'm great. You know we talk about things that are on the minds of everyone, everywhere.

That's right, all of the places.

And we. I want to talk today about something that people talk about. You know, if we had a, we had a shop. Every time somebody brought up this term, i think that we would be in trouble.

We'd be in trouble. My lover would not be. Yeah, as if it hasn't already. But that's not the point, fair enough.

That's another episode. Psychological safety. Psychological safety, and the reason it's something I want to talk about today is I went to a leadership, a virtual leadership conference, we'll say, and Amy Edmondson, ed Edmondson, i just you know from Harvard, she's the woman that coined psychological safety.

Yeah, she's a pretty bright bulb.

Yeah.

She's got a lot of stuff.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So she talked about kind of her take and why it's important and why just because you have diversity doesn't mean you have psychological safety, and I think we people don't understand it. So I want to talk about it today. But then right after that conference I was coaching somebody that I want to tell you about.

Oh, please. Yeah, that was exciting.

I can tell.

I can tell, i'm super excited when your stories are always so good, you never know what's going to happen.

Okay. So I was talking to this leader very senior leader, and I just had met him, responsible for a very large team, and so I was asking questions like how you know, how do you give feedback? What do you think about transparency within your organization? He goes, got it covered. I'm like, oh, tell me a little more. Yeah, he goes, my surveys show that everybody's really happy. Get all you know five stars or whatever it is, and he goes. I have a weekly meeting and I have everybody in my total org Let's just tell you over 200 people on this meeting And they he says anybody is welcome to speak.

Yeah, that's tough. It kind of reminds me, you know, a lot of people will have these form factors, these meetings, these structures, these these things that they do every day, and they'll say, look, i need to be transparent, so that meeting will be my transparent meeting. I need to have a diverse team, so these people will now be my diverse team. They're really putting the cart before the horse. I see that a lot of the people that I talked to.

Yeah.

It's pretty common to think that they're satisfying this complex function, complex idea with something very simple.

Yeah, and what is that that topic? Like to him I, and then I asked him like what is the? what is the dialogue in this in this meeting? It's a project update. They're not even talking about things that are you know, psychologically could be really risky.

And so he's not taking the. Yeah, they're they. It's very difficult to do that in a project status meeting.

Yeah.

Yeah. But, anyhow interesting. Yeah, i think that's a pretty common, common situation for leaders who are trying to, you know, accomplish certain things. They'll use those particular meetings or whatever in that form. So, yeah, i think we should probably talk about you know, what does that really mean? and how do leaders go about creating an environment where their employees do feel safe and and we'll really execute it?

Yeah, well, let's talk. The way that Amy Edmondson talks about psychological safety is, she says, psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, mistakes, yep, yep.

Yep.

So we feel the way we react to and we allow for people to kind of share what's on their mind, not just report what the what they're doing in their role. But how is it filled to be them in the space that they're in?

Well, that's for me. A lot of times I'll have with an individual, i'll have a project status meeting and then I'll have a different meeting that is more about their career counseling, their catch ups, whatever, because it's really important I think that you have a separate meeting and try not to do them at the same time, because one meeting has a certain type of dialogue pattern and the other one has a different type of dialogue pattern, and I think it's really challenging for people to switch in the same meeting And I think it does give you boundaries when you are articulated in a good way. So, yeah, it's really hard. It's really hard to ensure that. So, yeah, i've got a couple ideas that we could talk about how I think leaders can really jump in and make sure they're doing it right, that sounds good.

I just want to also put a point on. That was a really good best practice to separate it, and so that's good of you to see it as a leader. But I will tell you, when I work with people and they do have something difficult to talk to their boss about, they get really anxious about when to bring it up.

And so I love that you have these two places, and so you are allowing somebody to kind of have this place where they can bring something up which can be scary for them, And I think that's another responsibility of leaders to recognize when this is something that's high stakes for the other person and react accordingly.

Right, and I think that's really my first recommendation is you need to encourage open communication, right, it seems that is what that example of having several meetings is a means to do that, and that open communication means that you are open to different feedback. You're allowing people the opportunity to speak in a forum that is appropriate for that, not a meeting of 200 people, perhaps. But you've got to create that environment where people are able to speak their minds. Speak their minds without retribution, and you've got to do it in a way that you can't just say, as we often joke, are there any questions? That is not a question, right? If you want to feedback, you have to ask specific questions. You have to look people in the eye and say, jerry, what are your thoughts on that idea? Or, jerry, do you have an opposing point of view? Creating that dialogue has got to be an active function, and I think that that open environment is just going to take every leader a lot of work.

I think that's really good And I think that we underestimate how much we need to sit in that and just listen and allow, maybe ask two additional questions or really show your understanding, but allow it to kind of seep in so that you're not hearing it from your biased frame, but you're hearing it from them, so you understand it.

Well, and you have to embrace silence. That's great advice that you always give Be comfortable with that pause and really elicit the feedback, and I think that's a super critical element of creating that entire open communication ecosystem.

Yeah, yeah, for sure, all right, what's number two?

And the second one it's really adjacent to that.

But leaders have to lead by example, and so we have to respond to that feedback in a certain way, we have to ask for that response in a certain way, and I think what's really important too is that, as leaders, we have to recognize the fact that our voices are heard by our titles, and so we can't forget how difficult it is for other people and the work that other people have to put in to have their voices heard, and so, as leaders, we tend to get lazy about that and know that when I say something, people will listen. We have to create and work, lead by example, to encourage other people to have their voices heard. It's just like anything else You forget, you know, it's like going to the gym. If you're really in good shape, it's easy to just, you know, go play basketball. But if you grab somebody who isn't that athletic and take them, you can't expect them to play basketball great right out of the shoot. So these are muscles that we have to craft and we have to foster in our people.

Yeah, for sure. I think that's a good one And I think, like you said, we assume from the place that we are, but we need to help understand where they are in their understanding or journey.

Right, right. It's totally important. Everybody's in a different place. I think we have to take that individual lens.

Yeah, okay, that's a good one.

Then the third one is complex and we talk about it a lot. It's got a really simple line, a title or subject, but it's got roots that I want to talk about, which is really creating a learning and development environment, creating opportunities for people to learn. Now that sounds like just giving continuing ed credits or a couple of thousand dollars to go take some classes. It's much more than that. It's allowing people to become comfortable in the world that you work in, the environment that you're working on, allowing them to get confidence so they can speak up.

It's difficult to have a voice when I don't understand what's going on in the meeting, but it's impossible for me to gain that knowledge if the organization doesn't have an environment that fosters that growth. You've got to create a situation and a mindset that not understanding something is okay for a period of time, but you can learn and grow and understand what's happening If you have a voice that is important and be heard. I think educated people are more confident in what they want to say. Educated people are going to have more to bring to the table and they're going to have diverse points of view. I think that that environment is going to create a place where people are feel safe to speak.

It makes me think and tell me if this is the right context to it. If somebody comes to you that is a director, a reporter, a team member of yours and they want to learn something or they have a question about something, instead of just giving them the answer, giving them a path to figuring it out themselves, Well, technology, people are the worst about that.

A million times I've heard people say it's just easier if I do it for you. If somebody comes to me with a question now, I can give you the answer. The answer is 11, but let's talk about why it's 11. Let's talk about why I know it's 11. Let me talk to you about where you learn that number the next time. Whatever it is, that's the leader, leading by example and creating an environment of growth and learning.

It's really transparent and seems very simple, but so often leaders are asked questions and those are opportunities for us to really create psychological safety in the workplace.

Yeah, this is maybe a silly example, but it makes me think of my father's in his 90s, and he knows history. I don't even have the file folders for the nuances that he knows about all history of the world. Very cool And he'll very often say to me, just out of the blue, this weird. Do you know what happened in 1453? That's a, and it's so easy for me to say no, i don't.

Right And if he says, well, give me a couple of guesses. It forces me to kind of pull from what I do know to get at least close to it. So that I don't look like I'm not So it's interesting when you think about it like that. when you were talking, i was like it's funny how we forget what happens to people when you allow them to think, when you give them the answer. It's almost like you're just satisfying what the question the for the questioner when you make them, you know, search for the answer.

They have to discover more than you even intend.

Absolutely, and I think that's a great example of really helping people not only learn how to learn and learn how to grow, and I think, as leaders, and perhaps as parents as well, there's an opportunity for us to show people that this knowledge that we're imparting on you, or can be gained, is much more than the answer. It's the process by which you get there And ultimately, going back to the topic, our psychological safety, when we create an environment where people are at their best, communicating with them and answering questions in that way is going to just it's going to. it's going to pay dividends well beyond. you know, simply, their ability to answer. you know the question next time it's asked.

Yeah, this is really good. And before you go back to the three and give us kind, of the synopsis, i do want to mention one thing that Amy did say in her remarks was that don't forget, as we get up as senior leaders, we have more confidence that our opinion matters, because we have that experience and stuff, and so just that feeling of it doesn't just transfer, and I think that confidence is something that's built over time.

Sure is, and I think you know the confidence is created by leaders, in our, in our teams, by, you know, creating this environment. And so, like you know, back to the three top three, my three points here you know, if you encourage open communication, lead by example and ensure people are working in a safe place that they can learn, then that confidence is going to grow, then you're going to get a more productive team. And I think you said at the top, you know, if you have a diverse team that has diversity and thought and and makeup and education and all of our good factors, but they are not feeling safe to contribute at their levels, then diversity is irrelevant, absolutely Right. And so this psychological safety trumps all things And you can work very hard to create an environment which has all the right people, all the right experiences, all the right points of view, but if there isn't that safety, then it's, then it's, it's, it's not going to work.

And it's so important to continue to talk about and discover, to see the change ever changing, so that you ensure that it's top of mind. It's not something you like put in place, set and go.

That's exactly right. This is, this is the journey, not the destination, right? You just don't say, hey, on Thursday we're going to create psychological safety And then Friday we're going to have a staff meeting. Okay, that's how this works, right? And I think you know it's like a lot of things. You've got to evolve and adjust and, and and you know it's a very agile practice, if you will you've got to work it and see what's working for your teams and see what's not, and I think it's. But that's the joy of being in a leadership role. We've got to evolve along with the challenges.

Awesome. All right, i think these were really good, really good tips.

Good stuff.

Good stuff. Well, thank you for joining us. We appreciate you. Our quicksters Yep.

All you quicksters out there. Thanks for dropping us some notes. I really appreciated the feedback. I may actually help in. A couple of guys set up their own little podcast that people are asking about my mic. So thanks to you guys listening. Not that I know what I'm doing, It's just the mic. But hey, you know it works for you guys, It works for me.

It's the mic you're doing. Get right. You know, sometimes that's half the battle 90% of the battle. But find us. We're both on LinkedIn. Feel free to shoot us a note, give us your feedback, give us a question to talk about. We love, love, love that And share this with somebody that needs to be reminded about psychological safety Cause it's an important topic and we want to make sure that any impact and follow us, because then you'll, you'll always be here when we're here.

We want you to be here when we're here, so thanks for joining us.

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