Essentially psychological safety means that people feel safe to speak up, admit to mistakes, call out things that aren’t right, with the knowledge that they won’t be punished for doing so.
Research has shown that in healthcare settings, teams with a higher number of errors or near misses written in logbooks actually perform to a better standard. This sounding a little crazy? Let me explain.
Those team members who are raising their hands to say ‘I did this wrong’, or ‘we nearly accidentally did this’, give the whole team a chance to learn from these mistakes. They can identify why they might have happened (human factors potentially?), and what training or new systems they need to put into place to stop them being repeated in the future.
A psychologically safe environment is paramount if you want to build a successful team.
Toto Wolff (Mercedes F1 Team Leader)
Let’s turn it around and look at the teams who don’t have a high rate of reported errors. True -they might just be exceptional. But realistically, it has been found that they are often under-achieving, as they don’t have the opportunity to learn from mistakes if no one admits to doing them! Their development is much slower if they do not feel like they are in a safe environment to speak up.
The 4 stages of psychological safety
There are 4 stages of psychological safety as described by Dr Timothy Clarke:
- Inclusion Safety – you feel safe and accepted to be who you are
- Learner Safety – you feel safe to ask questions, receive feedback and experiement
- Contributor Safety – you feel safe to contribute your own ideas
- Challenger Safety – you feel safe to challenge others’ ideas and drive change where needed
These stages prove that psychological safety isn’t binary or can be switched on or off. There are stages that people move through, and not necessarily in the order described above.
So why does it matter?
As shown in the hospital example above – psychological safety can lead to teams performing above and beyond their usually standard. Not only that, but imagine the inclusivity of a team that allows people to be accepted, quirks and all. Imagine the feeling of knowing your questions and concerns will be heard. Imagine the motivation behind employees looking to drive change and innovation supported by their peers and bosses.
Reasons why it matters so much in the workplace are:
- Team members engage more!
- Employee wellbeing is improved
- It can reduce employee turnover
- It enhances inclusivity
- Creativity and expression is boosted
- It can elevate team performance!
So how can we foster this within our own teams?
Leaders have a large role in creating an example for their team to follow. If they are happy to admit mistakes and show their team their vulnerability – this is a great step! Not only this but making the time to listen to employees and seek out their opinions, nurtures that valued feeling amongst the team.
Employees can also make a difference as well though! If you think people have been left out in a meeting, there is no one stopping you asking them their opinions, and making sure you and your other team members listen carefully.
Encouraging the give and take of feedback can be daunting but it opens up the conversation and colleagues can slowly get used to it.
Feeling a little stuck?
For some veterinary practice specific psychological safety guidance, you can reach out to the lovely Liv Oginska at Vet Gone Real. She is a vet turned positive psychology coach and it is her mission to support veterinary practices build psychological safety workplace cultures!
And on that note, I hope you found this article interesting. DM me on instagram @thisvetcan_blog to chat about anything from this or my other blogs!
ThisVetCan 