How To Create A Psychologically Safe Workplace

It isn’t something we fix, it is something we build

We don’t need to look far to read and hear about psychological safety both in and outside of the workplace. The problem though, is that the steps on how to create a safe space are either motherly, extremely elementary, or obvious. Why is it then, that in 2018, we’re talking so much about psychological safety? Well, I think the problem is because we are leaning too heavily on perks and benefits, and not talking enough about the experience people are having both during and after work. 

Take a look at ‘Sneak Peak at Chicago’s 7 Sleekest Tech Offices’, for example. Before I get into making assumptions or suggesting they aren’t great places to work (I can’t speak to whether they are or aren’t), it is important to know that while these places of work may look fun, engaging, interactive, and collaborative, it is very difficult to see past the ping-pong tables and open spaces. It isn’t just the tools, tables, and design that make a workplace functional and safe, it is how people interact and react with the tools, tables, and perhaps most importantly, the people that are there.
 
To further this conversation, job descriptions, and career pages are quick to point out that they are dog-friendly, have a remote or flex work possibility, and have a cafeteria that serves meals for their staff, but they don’t usually go into what the true experience is like to work there. Rarely do they feature people who are in the position to truly articulate what is it like to be a member of the team.
 
And, here lies perhaps the most important aspect of psychological safety: to be psychologically safe, we have to feel like we belong, that we can take calculated risks and not fear the repercussions of failure, and that we are able to be our best selves not because we must be at work, but because we get to be there. This is where we have it wrong.
 
While perks may attract talent, experience keeps it. And to understand what the experience on the job is going to be (or at least be a little more educated about the experience) we have to stop talking just about the perks and start telling a bigger, more representative story about the holistic work experience. We have to stop trying to put out fires and prevent them from starting in the first place. We must take culture, which seems to be a reactive ‘let’s fix it’ approach, to one that is more proactive, a ‘let’s intentionally build’ approach.
 
If we’re going to start creating workplaces that are psychologically safe, we have to be talking about what it looks and feels like to be psychosocially safe at work. How much are employees working with/collaborating with their teams or superiors? Are employees by themselves or working constantly with a team? How much room for creativity is there? Do they get 120 emails a day or 25? Are workstations stand-up, open concept, or cubicle, or something else? What do performance management and feedback look like? These all matter.
 
When we’re designing a psychologically safe workplace for our teams, it is important to know that there isn’t a universal right or wrong. There is, however, a true and untrue, and a healthy and unhealthy for the people that work there, or will in the future. If we can intentionally build what a safe space is for our people and design around working styles, behaviors, and habits, then psychological safety in the workplace isn’t something we fix, it is something we build. And, what we build is much, much greater than a ping-pong table that doesn’t get used and keg that has yet to be tapped.