Do you have and use your ‘Voice’? Psychological safety at the workplace
By R. Esi Asante (PhD)
Have you ever wondered why people with opinions on issues usually fail to express them to the appropriate authorities but chose to raise those issues with people who may not be able to do anything about those opinions?
It is not a secret that most people do not have a ‘voice’ in certain environments. They are afraid to voice out their opinions on pertinent issues that violate their freedoms and rights, because of the fear of being victimized or punished.
For some, fear that they may lose favour with superiors make them shelve their divergent opinions. They reluctantly conform and toe the line of their superiors.
This is evident at the workplace, in homes and even political environments where people become consciously or unconsciously gagged and dared to conform or keep silent, thus losing their voice. This can be detrimental to public discourse and rich feedback from both minority and majority.
In some families, those without material and financial resources tend to be silenced and their opinions disregarded. Those who have the voice are those with the financial resources and so even when their opinions are ‘useless’, they are upheld and become binding on all.
The trend is the same for situations where public discourse is dominated by those with the resources, they have the voice and when they raise those voices, all others must comply.
Do you have a voice? Are you able to raise your concerns and make your opinions known to your colleagues and superiors without fear of rejection or a silent pressure to conform? Do you feel victimized for making your opinions known?
Are you able to participate in conversations and discussions without the fear of being penalized for the sides you take? Do you feel safe to disclose your thoughts and still have that sense of belonging? These are all questions that bother on psychological safety.
Think about the time you were most prolific, inspired and inventive at work when your ideas were supported, remember the current or previous environments you worked in and how you received support from colleagues and the perception that they have your back. These experiences, provide a sense of psychological safety.
It means a lot to be able to feel safe while engaged in conversations, the ability to speak up and disagree openly, to provide opinions without fear of negative repercussions or pressure to water down the truth. This kind of environment reflects psychological safety and this article examines the importance, and how it is engaged for a better workplace.
Psychological Safety climate
Psychological safety refers to the environment in which individuals feel secure and comfortable expressing their thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of negative consequences. McKinsey & Company observes that psychological safety is the absence of interpersonal fear.
LeaderFactor (2024) defined it as a culture of rewarded vulnerability, meaning that leaders and employees alike actively work to model and reward authentic human interaction, like learning, making mistakes, trying new things, sharing something personal, and challenging the status quo.
The term coined by Amy Edmonson, means the shared belief among members that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking (Osborne, 2020).
It means feeling comfortable to propose new ideas without fear of judgment, feeling safe when pushing back or voicing dissenting views and knowing that it is okay to take risks and make mistakes, because the backing of the team is assured to give feedback. In organisations, psychological safety is about establishing a sense of trust and openness and an assurance that people won’t face negative consequences for speaking up, making mistakes and offering diverse perspectives (LeaderFactor, 2024).
A psychological safety climate is therefore characterized by a shared belief among members of a team or group that it is safe to engage in behaviours, such as questioning current practices without reprisal or adverse cost (Maynard et al., 2012). Psychological safety climates have been found to help improve employee turnover, safe work behaviors, and job satisfaction (Macphee et al., 2014).
The Four Stages of Psychological Safety
The four stages of psychological safety are necessary cultural elements of any team and they are critical to employee mental health and well-being. Without them, people are confined to feeling fearful and inauthentic at work (LeaderFactor, 2024). The four stages of psychological safety developed by Timothy R. Clark, consist of inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety, and challenger safety.
Each of these stages highlights a unique human need that exists across demographics, geographics, and psychographics. As teams work to build psychological safety across the four stages, they build the foundation of a strong, deliberate, and healthy culture (LeaderFactor, 2024).
The model focuses on actionable ways to measure and improve psychological safety at the team level. According to him, psychological safety is the lead measure of cultural health, and has widespread influence on employee engagement, retention, and well-being.
Inclusion Safety
Inclusion safety satisfies the basic human need to connect and belong and has to do with whether one can be their authentic self on their team. Here, worth precedes worthiness. To foster this, people should be given the space to talk, express curiosity and verbally acknowledge and actively respect boundaries.
Learner Safety
It is a fundamental need for people to grow and this must be satisfied in organisations to ensure innovation. In learner safety stage, fear is detached from mistakes, and mistakes are rewarded as part of the learning process. Examples at this stage include valuing honesty over correct answers, not assuming competency and identifying learners.
Contributor Safety
Contributor safety satisfies the basic human need to make a difference and to offer meaningful contributions and whether one can create a value for the team. To create this safety for others means to empower them with autonomy, guidance, and encouragement in exchange for their effort and results.
Challenger Safety
Challenger safety satisfies the basic human need to make things better. It gives protection in exchange for candor. This safety gives members a voice to speak up when there is an opportunity to improve. Examples of this stage include asking for the bad news, assign dissent and show gratitude for the opportunity to learn and improve.
Importance of Psychological Safety
We live in an era where creating an environment for people to voice out their opinions, express their feelings and take risks is important. It is the key to mending broken interactions and create cultures of rewarded vulnerability in social settings (LeaderFactor, 2024). It also creates asylums of addition and havens of novelty where people feel safe to be their authentic selves and create value exponentially.
When employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to speak up and present their ideas and less likely to take disagreements personally. This interaction results in increased team creativity, less conflicts and higher performance.
(Luciano, Mathieu & Ruddy, 2014). A Gallup poll in 2019, said just 3 out of 10 employees strongly agreed that their opinions count at work. Research shows that organizations benefit from diversity of thought, and groups of people with different life experiences are better able to recognize problems and offer creative solutions than groups with similar life experiences, (Centre for Creative Leadership, n/d)
Psychological safety is about establishing a sense of trust and openness within teams and organizations. It gives the assurance that individuals won’t face negative consequences for speaking up, making mistakes, or offering diverse perspectives. They are more likely to engage in open dialogue, share their innovative ideas, and work together harmoniously when there is psychological safety.
By acknowledging and addressing the psychological needs of employees, organizations can create an environment that nurtures their well-being. Feelings of psychological safety reduced stress levels, increased job satisfaction, and promoted a higher sense of belonging within workplaces.
Additionally, it can ignite innovation and creativity, nurturing collaboration and teamwork, inspiring engagement and job satisfaction, intensifying performance and productivity, promotion well-being and mental health (LeaderFactor, 2024). Geraghty (2020) discussed other benefits including improved quality, health and safety, information security, higher employee retention improved company reputation, increased profitability.
Barriers, Challenges and Hazards
Battye (2024) reported that reluctance of individuals to bring their authentic selves to work, ineffective communication, lack of safe spaces and team dynamic issues, constitute some of the barriers and challenges to creating and sustaining psychological safety at the workplace.
She observed that the reluctance of individuals to bring their Authentic Self to work for instance, is particularly pronounced in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions. When people experience poor safety climates and lack of commitment to occupational safety, they face psychological hazards that can cause stress, strain, or interpersonal problems. Psychological harm may include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic disorder and sleep disorders (NIOSH, 2022).
Building psychological safety at workplaces
To foster psychological safety at workplace, it is imperative to make it a priority, to facilitate everyone having a voice and speaking up, creating spaces for new ideas, establishing norms for how failure is handled, embracing productive conflicts, paying close attention and looking for patterns of psychological safety, being intentional in promoting dialogue and Celebrating wins (Centre for Creative Leadership, n/d)
It is important also to help employees move through the four stages of psychological safety and ultimately land in a place where they feel comfortable with interpersonal risk-taking and speaking up, leaders should nurture and promote their team’s sense of psychological safety in the workplace, thereby promoting an organizational climate and culture that promotes psychological safety.
Additionally, measures to create inclusive and productive meetings to enhance psychological safety must be explored, strategies for showing vulnerability and building trust among team members is also highly recommended while finding ways to apply active listening and coaching techniques to empower colleagues should be pursued.
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