What is Psychological Safety?
Psychological safety is about creating an environment that encourages, recognises and rewards individuals for their contributions and ideas. It’s important that individuals feel safe when expressing different opinions or perspectives in the workplace. A lack of psychological safety at work can inhibit team learning and lead to blind spots.
When people feel that they can contribute their ideas they will
- feel more able to bring their true selves to work, without fear of embarrassment or recrimination;
- take risks and innovate rather than "playing it safe";
- be more likely to admit mistakes and learn from them rather than hide them, resulting in fewer failures;
- highlight problems, dangers and opportunities as they arise; and
- feel happier, resulting in lower absence, increased retention, and improved recruitment.
And, the workplace will be more inclusive, resulting in greater diversity and more voices being heard.
Our next workshop on Building Trust and Psychological Safety in Teams is at 10.00 am on 26 January is currently fully booked. Please email od@sussex.ac.uk if you would like to go o the waiting list for next time. If you are booked and unable to attend, please ensure you cancel your place.
In the meantime, we do have a short course on Creating Psychological Safety for Diverse Teams on LinkedIn Learning that is designed to help with strategies for communicating with people who think differently from you.
View and book a place on our upcoming courses. Please also see our webpages for more information about Organisational Development.