Fostering Psychological Safety in a Hybrid Work Environment

When I think of Psychological Safety I am reminded of being a 17 year old and making my first break into a senior League of Ireland football team. This situation in many ways today would resemble a promoted employee adapting to a new business team, and wondering if they ‘have what it takes to succeed.’ There is a flood of emotions from positive to negative during this period, we may experience the elation of joy, initially, only to feel the anxiety creep in as we meet the team for the first time. The confidence we know is inside us may start to disappear as our inner critic begins to pick holes in what seemed a perfect plan. The environment I was part of as a young footballer was anything but psychologically safe, it was fear driven and draconian in nature, where verbal and sometimes physical abuse of players that made plausible errors was common practice and the hierarchy ruled with no exceptions. No surprise then that this particular team, although successful in parts, would always fall at the final hurdle. This experience helped open my eyes to how you nurture sustainable high performance and I have been fascinated in exploring it ever since. In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea. Team members embrace newcomers rather than reverting to silence at the unknown prospect that has entered their territory. This article will outline key considerations and ways to foster psychological safety in a hybrid environment. 

The barriers to Psychological Safety

There is no denying that fear can be a powerful motivator and might, I stress, might boost performance in the short term. Long term, fear drives negative emotions, chronic stress and inevitable burnout. This can be one emotion that can inculcate high performing environments as demands increase rapidly and timelines decrease. Managing the level of psychological safety team members experience while producing regular results can be one of many creative tensions leaders and managers have to oversee. There is a fascinating short story told by Author Simon Sinek about the Navy SEALS, well regarded as the highest performing organisation on the planet. SEAL team six, which is the “best of the best'' Sinek describes dealt with one such creative tension. The tension that exists between performance and trust when selecting team members. It was not so surprising to hear that the SEALS with low performance and low trust were not the sought after confidant, but more surprising was the fact that neither were the high performers of mid-level trust. It was the high trust mid-level performers who those in SEAL team six most desired to accompany them into uncertain terrain. Another example of this creative tension exists in poignant research in sport from Scientists Mustafa Sarkar and David Fletcher in which building a team’s resilience was examined. The researchers found that to create a facilitative environment, one in which team members can enhance resilience, there needs to be the right mix of challenge and support. Too much challenge and not enough support and the environment becomes unrelenting, the opposite, breeds a stagnant environment where boredom ensues. In teams one further creative tension that can appear is between collaboration and speed. Again both are needed, collaboration offers aimed acceleration as it allows us to gain perspective at critical times and make the right decisions, along with offering endurance and a sense of belonging. Speed on the other hand provides momentum, the small wins which we need in every day business and focused attention with clarity on targets for the project team and clear objectives with timelines. At times one may be sacrificed for the other, occasionally this is warranted but consistently it is damaging. It is creating harmony with these creative tensions that builds sustainable results and for this we need psychological safety. I am also not saying that psychological safety is the panacea for all corporate ills but it may be a better way to manage the inevitable creative tensions that are ever present in high performing environments. Next we will look at an interesting framework which outlines the four stages of psychological safety and a model based in neuroscience which helps us move through those stages. 

Being aware of the 4 stages of Psychological Safety 

Great Historian Robert Conquest once said, “What is easy to understand may have not been easy to think of.” Innovation is never easy to think of. As the author of the book The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety Timothy R. Clark recalls, “innovation requires creative abrasion and constructive dissent-processes that rely on high intellectual friction and low social friction.”

In Clark’s book we are brought on a journey on how to effectively climb the ladder from inclusion safety to challenger safety. This natural progression is determined by a combination of respect and permission. By respect we mean the general level of regard and esteem we offer to one another and by permission we mean the degree to which we allow others to participate in our social unit and how much we ourselves allow the other person to influence what we are doing. The first stage on the ladder of psychological safety is inclusion safety, very simply this is when the social collective accepts you and grants you a shared identity. A way to consider this is, do you accept others and welcome them into your society even if their values differ from your own? The second stage is learner safety, this is a feeling of safety to engage in the discovery process, ask questions and even make inevitable mistakes. Without learner safety you will remain passive due to impending fear and perceived lack of permission. As a leader do you encourage others to learn and grow and support them in the process even when they lack confidence or make mistakes?

The third stage is contributor safety which may be viewed as an invitation and an expectation to perform work in an assigned role with appropriate boundaries, on the assumption that you can perform competently in your role. A question for leaders to ponder here would be, do you grant others maximum autonomy to contribute in their own way as they demonstrate their ability to deliver results? Many of us can struggle in the delegation process, whether it is holding onto an action too long or passing full responsibility across too early. Delegation is a skill which takes time and can be helped when there are clear metrics to highlight progress. 

The final stage is all about being able to challenge the status quo without retribution, reprisal, or the risk of damaging your reputation. It is about speaking the truth to authority when a change is needed, with challenger safety we overcome pressure to conform and can embrace the process of creative thinking. As Clarke declares in his book “the  leader’s job is to manage the tension and draw out the collective genius of people.”

Think for a moment, do you consistently invite others to challenge the status quo in order to make things better, do you embrace being challenged with humility and a growth mindset or do you create an environment where conformity reigns over creativity?

“innovation requires creative abrasion and constructive dissent-processes that rely on high intellectual friction and low social friction.”

Timothy R. Clark, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

The benefits of psychological safety in the corporate sphere are well studied and understood. It has been shown to drive performance and innovation, while low psychological safety incurs the disabling costs of low productivity and high attrition. One such study identified psychological safety to be the number one factor in explaining high performance. This study was performed by none other than Google. Google’s Project Aristotle included 180 of its teams and proved that smarts and resources can’t compensate for what a team may lack in psychological safety. Teams who promoted ostentatious listening and equality in conversational turn-taking, two of the main tenets of psychological safety, outperformed their more technically proficient counterparts. In a further study conducted in LinkedIn an analysis on the most important soft skills was undertaken, of the fifty thousand skills, one was identified as being the most crucial. This one skill was creativity. But creativity is never enough. It is only when people feel free and able, will they apply their creativity. Without psychological safety, there’s little chance of creativity flourishing as limiting beliefs block curiosity in us and those around us. Think of the myriad of successful companies who are no longer thriving today; Kodak, Blockbuster, Toys “R” Us, and AOL to name a few. These organisations were packed with highly intelligent people but still lost their competitive edge as they failed to innovate. These companies did not allow for an environment where the status quo could be challenged and as a result they lost market share. To foster intellectual diversity and constructive dissent employees need to be granted the respect and permission to truly engage. Let’s now view a model from neuroscience which offers both an understanding and practical application to inspire creativity.

How to climb the ladder: A model to understand Psychological Safety

Minimising danger and maximising reward is the organising principle of the brain. Emotions such as curiosity, happiness and contentment are what we call toward responses. They encourage us to engage with our environment, whereas anxiety, sadness and fear are away responses which heighten the activity in the limbic system sending a signal that a threat may be imminent. In every interaction we have we subconsciously and consciously assess the person in front of us, deciding whether this interaction possesses a possible threat. In rapid speed our mind and body work in tandem to prepare us for action toward or away from the situation. Being in this threat state hampers productivity and drains our cognitive resources. As we encounter the threat oxygen and glucose get diverted from parts of the brain including our working memory in preparation. This scuppers analytic thinking, creative insight, and problem solving; in other words, when it comes time for our mental capabilities to navigate a difficult scenario the brain's internal resources become scarcely limited. Nowhere is this more prominent than in our work environment. Dr. David Rock in his book Your Brain at Work introduces the SCARF Model. SCARF stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. This useful acronym may just be the trigger we all need to enhance the psychological safety within our teams. The model itself is backed by a wide ranging body of evidence in neuroscience and essentially offers an insight into the brain's functioning when in the midst of managing workplace confrontation. How we climb the ladder and maintain psychological safety takes awareness of SCARF. 

“What is easy to understand may have not been easy to think of.”

Robert Conquest, Historian

Status

It is well known within the marketing industry that there are two things that will get your attention more than any others, one is fear and the other is the promise of increased status. Status is a major driver of social behaviour and can be a primary reward or threat. With this being said, think of managing teams, does each person get offered appropriate time to speak, do you disregard ideas too quickly or do you avoid telling staff how much they are valued one to one. If so you are impacting the status of your team members and potentially pushing them to an away response. 

Certainty 

If there is one thing our brains crave it is a feeling of certainty. All we have to do is think about our own personal experience of the pandemic. How unnerving was it not knowing what restrictions would be implemented and for how long they would last. This brought a mix of emotions and plunged many into a threat response. Uncertainty makes us feel uneasy. It registers as a gap, or tension and something that must be corrected before we can feel comfortable again. Not knowing what will happen next can drain our vital cognitive resources and lead to diminished memory, lacklustre performance, and drive teammates to disengage. However, mild uncertainty may actually provoke feelings of interest and attention such as a new project, increasing levels of adrenaline and dopamine. This will spark curiosity and energise people around us. But it is not being transparent at key moments that can reduce levels of certainty. Confident and dedicated teams are built on a foundation of certainty. As leaders we must try and share business plans, rationales for change and articulate how decisions are made. All of this will increase trust. 

Autonomy

Have you ever experienced a young child throwing a tantrum because they did not get the sweets at the checkout, if you are a parent this scenario is probably all too vivid in your memory. If we take a step back to cogitate on this for a moment there is more to it than just a child not getting their own way. It is well understood that children feel emotions far stronger than adults but have yet to develop the ability to fully understand those emotions. A child not receiving the sweets experiences a rush of negative emotions related to a lack of autonomy. Human brains have evolved in direct response to stressors over a number of years, at a subconscious level we are highly attuned to social incidents which either threaten or support our capacity of choice. Within your team, once people feel they can execute on their own decisions without being micromanaged, stress remains under control.When teammates experience a lack of control the perception of uncertainty is also triggered. But by contrast, the perception of increased autonomy offers the feeling of greater certainty and as a result, reduced stress.

Relatedness 

How did we decide growing up who to associate with, who we called friend or foe? Well, it was largely down to common interests. These common interests turned a stranger into a familiar face and over time someone who became part of your social group. This does not really change as we move through our life. In every encounter with someone new we are subconsciously sizing the other person up and scanning for potential threats. Again, this is our brain at work. In order for a team to collaborate there needs to be a healthy relationship built on trust, vulnerability and empathy. These three cogs reduce perceptions of threat, allowing walls to come down and team collaboration to blossom. Trust cannot be mandated and empathy cannot be compelled. Building this requires time and repeated social interaction. Regular social interaction will secrete a hormone called oxytocin, the chemical linked with affection and generosity and which activates the neural networks that permit us to perceive someone as “just like us.” How often as a leader do you start meetings with a check in round to find out how everybody is feeling or ask colleagues what is one thing they are looking forward to at the weekend? However menial this task may seem it can be an easy win when it comes to boosting relatedness.

Fairness 

Increasing fairness is known to boost dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin pushing us in a toward state and open and willing to engage. Similarly to certainty, fairness is offered by transparent actions, sharing information in a timely manner will keep teammates engaged even during difficult periods. An environment of unfairness acts as a barrier to trust and collaboration within organisations. To explain the full extent of fairness let's look at a prominent study. Scientists  Matthew Lieberman and Golnaz Tabibnia found in their research that people respond more positively to being given 50 cents from a dollar split between them and another person than to receiving $8 out of a total of $25. This describes how, what may seem idiosyncratic in nature is actually the default of our human brain. We feel more satisfied with a fair exchange that offers a minimal reward than an unfair exchange in which the reward is substantial. As a leader it is crucial that we clarify expectations to avoid teammates feeling that they are being treated unfairly. Expectations alter perception and unmet expectations often create a threat response. When we experience heightened levels of arousal in the brain over a long and extended period of time, our allostatic load increases. This means our levels of markers such as cortisol and adrenaline in the blood become chronically high. This can diminish a team’s mental energy. Promoting a climate of fairness can be the gateway to discretionary effort and proactive innovation within teams.

SCARF can offer guidance to leaders and teams, those who understand this dynamic can more effectively engage the best talents of those around them. Leaders who actively and clearly communicate their expectations, give employees latitude to make decisions and support people’s efforts to build good relationships will be richly rewarded. Teammates become less susceptible to burnout as they are able to manage their stress and begin to feel intrinsically rewarded.

Psychological Safety helps teammates speak up and ask that clarifying question at a crucial moment, even when they might be afraid and conflict-avoidant in nature. It allows individuals to work on their courage, confidence, and self-expression in communication. Most importantly it breathes a culture conducive to honesty, where employees feel safe from retaliation and contributions flow in a multitude of ways. The models presented here can be a logical starting point but if you want to find out more ways to maximise the benefits of psychological safety in your organisation, please get in touch.

Mark@fitvision.ie