5 Myths About Psychological Safety

As a leader when you hear the term psychological safety what automatic thoughts pop into your head? Perhaps you think psychological safety means coddling your employees? Or psychological safety means opting out of high performance? Or that psychological safety is the only key to creating an inclusive workplace? 

Well, I am here to say these are myths about psychological safety at work. 

What psychological safety is not?    

Myth #1: Psychological safety is the goal. Amy Edmondson states that psychological safety is not the goal, but a means to the goal. The diagram below illustrates that psychological safety is a tool intended to fulfill a greater purpose such as team effectiveness, collaboration, innovation, or even inclusion. As a leader, how will you use psychological safety at work to achieve your end goal? 

Psychological Safety is a tool 

Myth #2: Psychological safety is about being “nice”. Psychological safety is not about breeding a work culture where everyone is overly polite nor does it condone the abuse (i.e. verbal, sexual, psychological,or physical abuse) of your employees. Rather, the practice of psychological safety breeds safe interactions among employees that are open and honest. Leaders practicing psychological safety should be able to give and receive feedback. 

Additionally, communication among employees will take on assertive undertones - where employees feel safe enough to clearly and directly communicate their needs, desires, and opinions with others in a considerate way. As a leader, do you think you can give and receive feedback or is it a one-way street? How does your or others' communication style influence safety in the workplace?

4 Communication Styles 

Myth #3: Psychological safety means freedom from conflict. Psychological safety is not about avoiding conflicts at work, but rather psychological safety allows for conflict to occur safely. Employees will have differing viewpoints. A truly psychological safe workplace will allow for productive disagreements. As a leader, it is important to be able to distinguish between productive and unproductive conflict to see if it's necessary to implement psychological safety.

Myth #4: Psychological safety equals acceptance of all ideas. Psychological safety does not mean that all your ideas will be applauded or rewarded. Will everyone agree that bringing shorts to the office is acceptable office attire? Maybe or maybe not. Will you and others have the ability to safely discuss them in team meetings? Yes. 

Myth #5: Psychological safety opting out of high performance teams. There are 4 quadrants to consider when thinking about psychological safety. Let’s break them down for you:

Learning zones are high performance zones consisting of high levels of motivation, accountability, and psychological safety. Learning zones allow for employees to take risks, discuss ideas, and solve problems because the focus is on collaboration and learning in service of high performance outcomes

Apathy zone - there are low levels of motivation & accountability along with a low level of psychological safety. The apathy zone is where your heart isn’t in it, you don’t much like your colleagues, and you're not giving your all at work or very low effort. 

Comfort zone - there are low levels of motivation & accountability with high levels of psychological safety. The comfort zone is where employees really enjoy working with one another but don’t feel particularly challenged. Nor do they work very hard. 

Anxiety zone - there are high levels of motivation & accountability with low levels of psychological safety. Anxiety zones within workspaces people fear to offer tentative ideas, try new things, or ask colleagues for help, even though great work requires all three.

What zone do you think your team falls into?  

So what is Psychological Safety?   

Based on Amy Edmonsdon, psychological safety is the belief that the workplace is safe for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, and even mistakes. It’s a sense of confidence that your voice is valued. 

You want to know a bit more about  psychological safety and the first steps on how to use it in your D&I implementation. We’re teaching just that in our 2-day D&I certification course. Learn more. 

If you would like to know more about how to create a working environment where everyone thrives, or how to train your leaders to become more inclusive and create so they can create a high performing team, reach out and we will dive into your needs.   

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