Psychological Safety

As defined by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, psychological safety is the belief that one can speak up without fear of negative consequences. Contrary to lowering performance standards, it creates an environment where high standards thrive through openness, creativity, and collaboration.

• Fostering Innovation and Risk-Taking: Psychologically safe environments empower employees to share innovative ideas and take risks. Team-building activities like design thinking workshops can boost creative problem-solving and lead to performance breakthroughs.
• Facilitating Honest Feedback: High-performance standards thrive on honest feedback. Activities that improve communication, like active listening and feedback role-play, create an atmosphere where constructive criticism is valued.
• Learning from Failures: In a psychologically safe workplace, failures are learning opportunities. Celebrating ‘failure stories’ and resilience workshops encourage employees to embrace challenges, pushing performance boundaries.
• Enhancing Team Collaboration: Feeling valued increases discretionary effort. Trust-building and emotional intelligence workshops enhance collaboration, raising overall performance standards.
• Aligning Individual and Organisational Goals:  Psychological safety aligns personal and organisational goals. Activities exploring company values and goal-setting reinforce this alignment, driving higher performance.
• Addressing Mental Wellness: With mental wellness at 35.4% in Sydney, psychological safety is crucial. Activities promoting work-life balance and stress management support mental health, sustaining high performance.
• Balancing Accountability and Support:  Psychological safety balances accountability with support. Peer support and feedback workshops help maintain high standards in a supportive environment.