* First published in Edge, September 2024
Maintaining Psychological Safety in Periods of Great Change
In times of great change, maintaining psychological safety within your organization is crucial.
Venturing into these periods without a solid foundation of psychological safety risks cultivating a toxic culture, leading to increased resistance, miscommunication and conflict. Therefore, building this foundation is essential for your organization to navigate change effectively.
Here’s how you can establish and sustain psychological safety.
Establish a Foundation of Psychological Safety
Psychological safety must be deeply ingrained in the organizational culture before significant change occurs. Without it, existing pockets of toxicity can spread more widely throughout teams and the organization, exacerbating the challenges associated with change.
To create a psychologically safe workplace, start by identifying and addressing areas of toxicity across the 5 levels of culture.
The 5 Levels of Culture
Level 1: Personal Culture
This is the core of individual beliefs, values and behaviors that shape each employee’s contribution to the workplace. Focus on developing emotional intelligence, self-awareness, authenticity, personal accountability, motivation, work ethic, resilience and effective coping mechanisms.
Level 2: 1-2-1 Culture
This level relates to direct interactions between individuals, such as manager-employee relationships or peer-to-peer interactions. Cultivate effective communication skills, trust, feedback mechanisms and conflict resolution approaches to strengthen these interactions.
Level 3: Team Culture
Team culture involves the dynamics, interactions and norms within specific teams or workgroups. Promote cohesion, shared goals, role clarity, inclusivity and collaboration. A positive team culture enhances teamwork, boosts productivity and supports innovation.
Level 4: Collaboration Culture
At this level, focus shifts to interactions and collaborations among different departments or teams. Emphasize cultivating strong interdepartmental relations, cooperation, transparency, knowledge sharing, collaborative problem-solving and making collective decisions that transcend organizational boundaries.
Level 5: Organization Culture
The highest level, organizational culture, encompasses the overarching values, norms, policies and practices that define the workplace environment. It is shaped by leadership styles, organizational structure and systems, communication channels, reward systems and alignment of values with strategic goals. A strong organizational culture enhances employee engagement, morale, organizational effectiveness and the overall reputation of the company.
Address Toxicity
To effectively address areas of toxicity within your organization, implement a comprehensive and targeted approach.
Diagnose Root Causes
Accurately identify the underlying issues contributing to toxicity at each of the 5 levels of culture. Utilize Lux, our cutting-edge diagnostic tool, to gather robust data on these root causes.
Targeted Interventions
Utilize insights from Lux to develop and implement targeted interventions aimed at addressing the root causes of toxicity.
Raise Awareness
Educate all employees on the importance of psychological safety and the value of bringing their Authentic Self to work. Conduct workshops and training sessions to raise awareness, encourage a shared understanding of its significance and highlight the role each person plays in creating a healthy workplace culture.
Train Leaders and Managers
Equip leaders and managers with the skills necessary to transform toxic cultures and create psychologically safe environments. Offer training programs focused on psychological safety, workplace culture, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution and effective leadership.
Enhance Communication Skills
Ensure all employees have the communication skills needed to contribute to a positive workplace culture. Provide training on communication fundamentals, including navigating conversations, active listening, constructive feedback, conflict resolution and effective collaboration.
Understand Team Dynamics
Take the time to understand your team’s dynamics. Establish personal and professional boundaries and learn about each member’s work, communication and celebration preferences. Organize team discussions to share these insights, navigate differences and leverage this knowledge to create an environment where everyone can thrive and collaborate more effectively.
Create Safe Spaces
Develop and maintain spaces where employees feel safe to actively participate.
Revise Policies and Systems
Review and update organizational policies and systems to support a culture of psychological safety. Implement practices that promote transparency, fairness and accountability.
Proactively addressing these areas, as a starting point, is essential to cultivating a healthy and resilient workplace culture.
Sustain Psychological Safety
Once a healthy workplace culture is established, maintaining psychological safety during periods of change becomes more manageable.
With a strong foundation, individuals and teams can communicate effectively, resolve conflicts, demonstrate resilience, collaborate and navigate workplace scenarios confidently.
The Imperative of Psychological Safety
The key to navigating periods of change is to have psychological safety firmly in place beforehand. Without it, even the simplest changes can cause significant disruption.
Ensure that your organization prioritizes and maintains psychological safety to thrive in times of transformation.
By cultivating a culture that values and upholds psychological safety, leaders can create a healthy, resilient and adaptable organization ready to face the challenges of change.