PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY

The key to happy, high-performing people and teams

What is Psychological Safety?

The term Psychological safety was originally coined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson whose research focused on psychological safety as it applies to work for teams. In this context, Edmondson defined psychological safety as:
“a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” (Edmondson, 2014)

Why is it important?

Recent neuroscience research has revealed the importance of Psychological Safety for personal mental and physical health, engagement, and productivity.
Studies have demonstrated that a “hit” to our psychological safety (through bullying or social rejection) can have a stronger impact on the brain than a punch to the face.
When our psychological safety is threatened, our brain is triggered into a stress response that compromises our cognitive abilities and impacts our ability to think, be creative, make decisions, and regulate emotions.
Experiencing psychological threats over a prolonged period can have more serious impacts on mental and physical health and well-being and can lead to burnout and illness.

Why is it relevant in the workplace?

In 2015 Google published the results of Project Aristotle, an in-depth study to find the factors common to high-performing teams. Research on 100s of their teams revealed the most agile and high-performing teams were those with a high sense of Psychological Safety.

Members of these teams felt a sense of trust and security within the team, which enabled them to speak up and be themselves without fear of retribution or ridicule. This led to a more engaged and collaborative team where members were more trusting, less likely to leave, and more likely to harness the power of diversity, leading to greater team performance and success.

How do we measure and build it?

Until recently, we haven’t had the knowledge or tools unpack Psychological Safety. The logical starting place is its root -the brain-yet we lacked the ability to measure, track or implement strategies for something so subjective and invisible.
Thanks to recent breakthroughs in neuroscience we are now gaining this visibility by uncovering the brain’s social needs that determine and impact our sense of Psychological Safety.
Understanding these needs and triggers and how we prioritize them, as well as how to manage them can help us protect and build psychological safety

If harming psychological safety is so damaging, and the benefits of protecting psychological safety are so great, why don’t we give it the same attention in society as we do physical safety?

Your brain is hardwired for safety above all else.

As society has evolved, our brains have become acutely sensitive, not only to physical threat, but to the psychological threats we experience in our social interactions.
These can be things like attitudes, behaviors, motivations and judgments. Mostly these perceived threats are monitored and detected by our brain at a non-conscious and reactions are influenced by automatic, non conscious processes, meaning that most of the time … you are on autopilot
So how do you identify and manage the triggers that threaten psychological safety and hijack your brain?

The S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM Model

Based on the latest neuroscience research, the S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM Model outlines six domains of threat and reward that are important to the brain and that impact our behavior and motivation. Understanding the needs, rewards, motivations, biases, and stress triggers of each domain provides insight into yourself and others to help you nurture your own and others’ psychological safety.

The S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM Assessment

The S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM assessment is a validated tool that ranks and quantifies how important the S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM social drivers are to you. Only the first five components of the acronym are measured as the “Y” (You) is so incredibly complex and variable between individuals.
The S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM profile report helps you understand what drives you and the relative importance you place on each domain. It also identifies how you might experience threats and how other people might experience your behavior.

Building safety one brain at a time!

ABL’s scientifically-driven solutions equip leaders and teams with the language, awareness, tools, and skills they need to foster psychological safety personally and collectively.
S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM debrief sessions use the assessment and the S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM toolkit as reflection tools to build self-awareness of psychological safety needs and triggers and the strategies to communicate and manage them.
Team S.A.F.E.T.Y.TM Debrief sessions build on this to increase interpersonal awareness and emotional intelligence to improve team collaboration, engagement, wellbeing and performance.

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About Mashar

Mashar is the leading provider of corporate coach training. Mashar was the first coaching school in the Gulf area, founded in 2013. Mashar Coaching and Mentoring programs are delivered in Arabic and English languages.

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Street Ali Alsalem qebla Kuwait City
Telephone: +965-99034310
Email: raja@mashar.org