Part one addressed the first set of misconceptions that psychological safety means being nice, getting your own way, or lowering standards and accountability.

Psychological safety is NOT about being nice or creating an anything-goes culture. It does not require a trade-off with performance or prevent you from holding people accountable. Instead, it creates the conditions for teams to access the full range of information and expertise available to them. This includes asking questions, testing ideas, and engaging in constructive challenge and debate.

This is what supports strong performance. Psychological safety enables teams to think more clearly, work through issues effectively, and continue to improve.

Here, in Part 2 of debunking misconceptions around psychological safety, we look at three further misconceptions that ‘psychological safety’:

  1. Means you can say whatever you want, whenever you want (without regard for the consequences),

  2. It’s a policy, (and functions like one),

  3. It requires a top-down approach. 

In a space full of abstract terms and various similar sounding terms (such as psychosocial risk and psychological health), let’s first remind ourselves of the definition of this concept.

It is essential that we have a clear understanding of these terms, and how and why they matter to teams and collaborative performance and decision-making in healthcare.

Psychological safety is the shared belief that a team or workplace is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, allowing employees to speak up, ask questions, report mistakes, or propose ideas without fear of punishment or humiliation. It is therefore a characteristic of a team climate that is always being created, and that can also be easily undermined and broken. Psychological safety is something team members perceive and assess, every time they act and speak within a team.

It is not a permanent state or stable characteristic of a team.

It is not a value, a process, or a policy.

It is different from psychological health or psychosocial risk – two terms enshrined in the new OH&S regulation introduced last year.

We will consider all of this as we debunk these next misconceptions about psychological safety.


Debunking further ‘psychological safety’ misconceptions:

  1. It means you can say whatever you want, whenever you want.

The ability to speak up and contribute one’s views to the team, without fear of negative consequences, is different from having license to say anything regardless of outcome or effect.

When team members provide a different view or opinion from others, express uncertainty, doubt of being at fault, or disagree and ask questions regardless of status and role, they are engaging in a group process of high-quality interactions, that give rise to better plans and decisions.

The contributions people make must be on task, relevant to the discussion, professional and respectful of others. That is, the process of discussion, debate and decision-making must be civil, respectful, and not contain bullying, harassing or discriminatory remarks or actions.

Leaders and team members alike must be clear in this distinction: It is essential for high performance that everyone participates and contributes to the task; this is not a license to say anything in any manner.

Leaders and team members who call out disrespectful behaviour will likely be supporting a healthy and safe team climate. Indeed, managing group processes through conflict or disagreement is an important part of skilled teamwork and leadership.

Ensuring people feel safe to speak up is NOT the same as saying anything, anytime without consideration of context and purpose. Teams that can manage high-quality interactions, including productive levels of conflict and tension, get better results.

  1. Psychological safety is a policy.

Psychological safety is NOT a policy.  It is not something that can be mandated or required or established by releasing a policy or regulation. 

As stated earlier it is a shared perception that emerges within the team each time the team comes together. It is not a lasting characteristic. In this sense it is more like trust, a different but close concept, which—like psychological safety—is hard won and easily broken.

Recent changes to Occupational Health and Safety laws in Australia means that health and safety regulations now address psychological health. As we have said before, psychological health and psychosocial risk are not the same as or directly related to psychological safety – but they do hold meaning and implications for each other.

While these laws do not implicate psychological safety directly, they raise important aspects of how work and workplaces can and should be designed to ensure people are safe and safe to work in a healthy and sustainable way. Specifically, these regulations outline new obligations for employers in relation to psychosocial hazards in the workplace. They provide detailed requirements for identifying, assessing, and managing risks that may affect employees’ psychological health. Psychosocial hazards are factors that may arise from work design, systems of work, management practices, or interpersonal behaviours in the workplace. These hazards can contribute to stress or psychological injury if not effectively managed.

While psychological safety is not and cannot be directly regulated and mandated via a policy, well designed policies and guidelines can help support the creation of psychological safety.

For example:  

  • Clear guidelines on roles and responsibilities.

  • Clear guidelines for giving feedback, managing performance, and learning and improvement do help.

 

  1. Psychological safety requires a top-down approach.

Psychological safety must be built interaction by interaction. Leaders set the tone, but every team member plays a role. Therefore, both top-down and ‘bottom up’ interactions – have a role in creating psychological safety.

That said, leaders do have a particular platform for cultivating it. Their power, status, authority and duty of their role, provide a place to set the tone and cultivate psychological safety.

Leaders can:

  • Acknowledge that the work is complex and uncertain and everyone’s input is needed - we work in teams because effective healthcare is not delivered by just one person. Teams deliver higher-quality decisions and plans than even the best individual member. Fact! 

  • Acknowledge that mistakes and errors can happen (human error can never be ruled out) and that things can only be rectified, improved and learned from if they are acknowledged and recorded. Hiding errors is dangerous.

  • Directly invite people to participate in meetings and discussions to share their thoughts – it feels risky for us to speak up, ask questions and ask for help. So, we need to set strong expectations around everyone participating.

But leaders cannot do it alone. Creating a positive, safe, and collaborative team climate is everyone’s work.


So where to from here?

Take a few minutes to think about your team and team climate:

  • How safe is it for you?

  • How safe is it for others?

  • Is the hard collaborative work of the team being done to its full potential?

If not:

  • Check your teams.

  • Check your roles and processes.

  • Check your skillset and level.


Other resources


References

If you would like to learn more about how to do this, join our program.

You can also view our other professional development offerings in this area.

Note that our Flagship Leadership Education programs feature core modules on Psychological Safety and how to create it in healthcare teams.

Leadership Insights are written by AMAV’s Leadership development coach and educator Dr Anna Clark (PhD) and are published fortnightly. Anna also delivers AMA Victoria’s Leadership education and Leadership coaching programs.

If you would like to find out more about our leadership development offerings, schedule a discovery call or email amavic@amavic.com.au