What is psychological safety at work? How leaders can build psychologically safe workplaces (Center for Creative Leadership)

Summary

Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. This article by the Center for Creative Leadership explores why psychological safety is so important to foster in workplaces. It suggests eight steps toward creating more psychological safety at work and describes the four stages of psychological safety.

Content

Eight steps toward creating more psychological safety at work

1. Make psychological safety an explicit priority.
2. Facilitate everyone speaking up.
3. Establish norms for how failure is handled.
4. Create space for new ideas (even wild ones)
5. Embrace productive conflict
6. Pay close attention and look for patterns
7. Make an intentional effort to promote dialogue
8. Celebrate wins