The belief that you can speak up, ask questions, challenge decisions, make mistakes and disagree…. WITHOUT fear of being humiliated, punished or fired.
Imagine you’re in a sprint planning meeting. Your colleague suggests re-writing the entire codebase in ‘Rust’ because “it’s the future”. You know its a bad idea, but you stay silent. Why? The last time you spoke up, Joan from DevOps sighed so loudly that the office plants wilted in sympathy (FYI this is called a ‘microaggression’ - look out for that blog in the future).
That is a lack of Psychological Safety. It’s more common than you’d think!
The Tech Sector needs innovation, problem-solving and collaboration to thrive. All of these things grind to a halt without Psychological Safety.
You might recognise some of these common issues that arise from a lack of Psychological Safety:
Innovation dies because people are too scared to suggest unconventional ideas
Security breaches happen when mistakes are hidden, undetected instead of flagged and fixed early
No one is admitting they are stuck, so progress slows and opportunities for collaboration are missed
Burnout is romanticised as people feel the need to perform perfectly at all times
Google’s re:Work team found that Psychological Safety was the number one characteristic of their highest performing teams; more than talent, tenure or seniority
[ https://rework.withgoogle.com/en/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/ ].
Teams with high Psychological Safety are 76% more likely to be engaged, 50% more productive and 27% less likely to leave the company (Gallup, 2022)
[ https://psychsafety.workplaceoptions.com/ ]
[ https://www.workhuman.com/blog/psychological-safety-at-work/ ].
Smart people stay silent enabling bugs to be shipped, causing production to break, ultimately costing the business rework time and money
Your team agree with everything you say, allowing ridiculous ideas to be implemented, despite half the team knowing that is not a good idea
The blame game begins. Mistakes have to be pinned to a single person, which stalls collaboration, trust and accountability
Leaders openly say “I don’t know, what do you think?” which leaves the door open for other people to admit when they are stuck
Teams are thankful when the new-start points out process mistakes
People openly admit mistakes and the team uses these as opportunities to learn and grow
Lead by example: Be vulnerable
Celebrate people who speak up, ask questions and challenge decisions
Normalise mistakes and celebrate failures as opportunities
Manage your own, and other peoples, microbehaviours: eye-rolls, sighs and interruptions say “You’re not safe here”. Shut them down.
Psychological Safety is the invisible architecture behind your best code, products and people. It is the reason that your team dares to experiment, challenge conventional processes and ship bold ideas. Without it you risk mediocrity, missed opportunities and limited business growth.
Look out for it in the pauses people take before speaking. Ask yourself, “What environment have we created here?”. Build Psychological Safety intentionally and watch your team thrive!