The Benefits of Psychological Safety

When asked about the barriers for moving the School’s Culture forward, the staff, in groups, listed several reasons. I was intrigued by these four:

1. Lack of respect & speaking courteously

2. Afraid to speak up for fear of being spoken over or shot down.

3. Fear of admitting you are struggling and being misunderstood as not committed or not valuable.

4. Feels like your opinion isn't valued.

These comments are indicative of Amy Edmondson’s work in Psychological Safety as to why workplaces with this fear create a toxic space where people want to conform rather than contribute.

Dr Edmondson’s research articulates that when people feel valued, accepted, safe, and heard, the organisation’s performance escalates.

It is really the same premise for the students in your classrooms. The simple building blocks for productive relationships.

So why would the school’s performance increase? When there is a problem or an issue, it is human nature to fix it. We know that there are different ways to fix the problem and there are different opinions on the methodology. If people are afraid to speak up and contribute to the solution for fear of retribution, judgement or worthiness, then the solutions are going to be minimal.

So, when it comes time to implement the solution, due to the lack of input, resistance will be high. And schools are forever trying to improve the outcomes for students, so there are many times a whole school approach is necessary. As in, everyone’s opinion is valued.

Here are three things you (yes everyone) can do to create a psychological safe zone and maximise contribution:

1. Acknowledge every person’s contribution no matter how small or indifferent by saying, ‘thank you’.

2. Use a “Car Park” to ‘park’ people’s suggestions that are not aligned with the current task at hand. This is a way of appreciating the person’s contribution.

3. Listen with your ears and not your mouth. My grandfather would say, “You have two ears and one mouth, use them proportionally.

Everyone’s experience and knowledge are amazing regardless of years of service. No one needs to own the brains trust.

Allow everyone to contribute and grow the trust so it is a richer and deeper experience where solutions are easily sourced.

Do this and people will feel valued, accepted, safe, and heard.