(Psychological Safety cont. 5)

More on Psychological Safety

Introduction
"...psychological safety determines an organisation's ability to attract, develop, and retain its people..."
Timothy Clark et al, 2022

It is a levelling device as a redistributes influence and creates a culture of rewarding vulnerability, not punishing it.

There are 4 stages in psychological safety:

i) inclusion safety

ii) learner safety

iii) contributor safety

iv) challenger safety

Psychological safety allows you to feel
"...1. Included
     2. Safe to learn
     3. Safe to contribute
     4. Safe to challenge the status quo - all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalised, or punished in some way..."
Timothy Clark, 2022

However, there are 2 types of leaders who dislike psychological safety:

i) leaders who value title, power and status (psychological safety threatens their positional power and ego:
"...psychological safety......neutralises authority bias......become more agnostic to status and more willing to debate issues on their merits, creating a genuine idea and skill meritocracy based on capability, not title..."
Timothy Clark et al, 2022

NB difference between achieved and ascribed status:
    - achieved status refers to accomplishments through performance and effort, ie
"...you've worked hard to develop the competence necessary to get where you are......your sense of identity is tied more to your efforts and accomplishments than your status and position..."
Timothy Clark et al, 2022

    - ascribed status refers to
"...your sense of self is bound up in title, position, and authority......then anything that might reduce your stature and reputation based on these factors signals a threat...... they will try to protect privilege and consolidate power..."
Timothy Clark et al, 2022)

ii) leaders who lack competence (this context threatens exposure as they can no longer use their position to hide their lack of expertise or judgement.

This involves shifting
"...the focus of power hierarchy to competence hierarchy. It may not redistribute decision rights, but it does broaden and redistribute participation rights..."
Timothy Clark et al, 2022

The best ideas win, ie meritocracy.

It offers those with differing perspectives the opportunity to express their opinions without fear of retribution.

NB
"...The less competent a leader is, the more likely they will be to exercise control through fear, intimidation, shame, or manipulation. Conversely, the more effective the leader, the more that leader will genuinely listen, collaborate effectively, and lavish credit on others rather than just themselves..."
Timothy Clark et al, 2022)

Psychological safety is built around 2 factors:

i) respect

ii) permission to participate

"...psychological safety is a dynamic and delicate variable that is hard to build and easy to destroy..."
Timothy Clark, 2022

It as a central measure of a group's culture, health and vitality:

Questions to evaluate psychological safety:

i) what is the current level of psychological safety within your team, unit, organisation?

ii) how can you raise awareness of psychological safety among your colleagues?

iii) how do you hold your group members accountable to take ownership for an improvement their psychological safety behaviours, like modelling and rewarding vulnerability?

iv) how do you monitor improvements in psychological safety and how will you measure the impact of the change?