Various “terms” have surrounded us and permeated our lives. I feel like I know the words somehow. But do I understand them concretely or can I explain them? This is a series of articles that attempts to put such “vaguely” into “easy-to-understand” terms.
This time it is “psychological safety”. It’s Japanese, but you may or may not understand it… Even if you do understand it, how can you achieve it…? Let’s think about this word together this time, as it is the foundation for working! Please join us!
What is psychological safety?
Psychological safety means that within the companyA state of being able to express one’s opinions and feelings in a safe manner and act without fearof the project. It was proposed by Professor Amy C. Edmondson in 1999. Later, Google’s “Project Aristotle” initiative to “discover commonalities among highly productive teams” revealed that psychological safety isOne of the pillars in building a productive teamThe company was considered to be a “good” company.
In an environment without psychological safety.
Wouldn’t they think you are ignorant?
Wouldn’t they think I’m not capable?
Wouldn’t that break the story?
Will my opinion be seen as a form of denial?
Because of these considerations, proactive suggestions, improvements, and sharing of mistakes do not take place.
Case 1: A customer complained about my work. When psychological safety is low, feedback is not given to the team for fear that their own reputation will suffer. Since feedback is not given, organizational problems are not shared. As a result, the organization remains the same and the same complaints may occur.
Case 2: Thinking that they may be talking out of their ass when they express their opinion. While others are exchanging opinions in the meeting, I have a different opinion. However, he does not speak up because he does not want to complicate or prolong the meeting further. As a result, various ideas do not come to the surface. The organization remains unimproved.
Psychological safety is considered to be the foundation of a team-building culture. An environment of psychological safety is one in which people feel safe to take the risks of workplace relationships (bad atmosphere, self-doubt) and offer their opinions and suggestions.
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Psychological safety at work
What are the benefits?
The opposite of the disadvantage described earlier is that active suggestions, improvements, and sharing of mistakes will take place. The advantage is that people can speak up without fear of “Will I offend the atmosphere by making such a suggestion?
By “without fear,” I do not mean “to strengthen one’s spirit so as to be able to handle being put out of the air/rebuked,” but rather “not to be put out of the air” or “not to be rebuked” in the first place.
While there will be times when different opinions and suggestions are discussed and not adopted, the discussion will be lively and reassuring, rather than merely casual.
How do we increase psychological safety? How do we tackle it?
We now know what a psychologically safe environment looks like. So, what kind of efforts are needed to achieve it? This is the most difficult part, and I think this is what everyone wants to know the most. In this article, we will briefly introduce three points that can be addressed first.
The entire team knows the benefits of psychological safety.
It is important to first understand the benefits of a psychological safety environment as described above. If we know that working on increasing psychological safety will benefit not only the team as a whole, but also each individual, it will be easier to work on it as a whole.
Provide more opportunities to speak
If you have more opportunities to talk with your team members than you do now, you will feel more comfortable expressing your opinions. In the course of conversation, you will feel more comfortable by showing acceptance of others, such as by giving them a good talking-to.
Ensure that you have equal opportunity to speak up
In order to ensure that everyone has the same opportunity to express their opinions, it is also important to have equal opportunities to speak. This eliminates the worry of “Is it okay for me to speak up now?”
summary
In this issue, we delved into psychological safety, its benefits and how to tackle it. It is only a six-letter word, but it is an important keyword that is essential to working as we do. It is very difficult to build and maintain, because it is essential to make a concerted effort to realize it. However, it is a concept that will definitely make it easier to work if we continue to work on it.
We at mgn will continue our efforts to help each individual make the most of his or her individuality and abilities to improve performance.
