What you need to know.
In a ‘psychologically safe’ space individuals feel able to take risks in sharing information that might be disadvantageous to that individual if spread wider, or could be used by team members to disadvantage the individual. It is an essential component in high performing teams and also in individual transformative learning. Transformative Learning makes a significant change in an individuals skills sets and behaviours and often feels like it is pushing them out of their comfort zone. The trusting relationship mitigates the shame that many people feel when they are ‘not coping’. The sharing of information is within a relationship where an individual has consented to provide the information. It is based on developed trust. It helps teams and individuals perform because the people involved:
- Understand and will often predict each other’s responses to situations.
- Have an agreed joint objective.
- Have learnt over time how the other party will behave towards them and how to mitigate any risks.
- Have shared a significant personal information with each other – age, partnered or single, parent or not, preferred drinks, living location, hobbies (etc., etc.).
Mission Creep?
Recently the phrase has crept into organisational training. Is it appropriate[2]?
Training is not therapy, counselling, coaching or even mentoring. Those delivering it are not often trained coaches, therapists, psychologists or counsellors with independent professional standards and affiliations. Training is often delivered in groups of acquaintances within the organisation. All of these have disparate departmental loyalties, management responsibilities, hierarchical roles and individual ambitions.
How to Lead through this?
Training Initiatives
- Be cautious with anyone (staff or consultant) who tells you they can create a place of psychological safety in a group organisational setting. Training activities exist within the context of a competitive and hierarchical grouping – i.e. a team or an organisation. Not only do you owe all participants a duty of care, badly handled training may impact team performance negatively.
Is it possible to create psychological safety in groups? Yes. Team building initiatives where there are specialists who are expert at understanding and managing the complexity of the multiple interactions within a team. Team building seeks to shorten the time necessary to build interpersonal trust in a group of individuals.
- If the training is requirement set by more senior individuals? Ask that the providers set safe clear rules about sharing personal information. Prebrief your team participants prior to their attendance and ‘check in’ with them afterwards. Help individuals to think about what might trigger them in such training. Suggest they reflect upon what they will do if they are triggered (removing self from source of distress for 20- 30 mins to calm works). Rehearsing a white lie might be helpful in these circumstances.
Generally:
When in a position of authority –or a facilitator – asking people to share intimate personal details and their beliefs with strangers/acquaintances is not psychologically safe.
Beliefs are by definition deeply held, result from family and society (conditioning) and lived experience. They do not change because someone is told to change them. People sometimes do learn to repeat compliant words ‘off by heart’, but doing so does not mean they believe them or will be able to change their behaviours. (See the article on transformative learning to understand how to effect change at https://theperformancepractice.co.uk/an-unanswerable-question/).
Applauding (praising) people if they share intimate personal details with strangers/acquaintances or work colleagues is not psychologically safe. If you do this when you are in a position of authority, it sets an inappropriate boundary about what may be shared in the workplace.
When Life Collides with Work
Some individuals are so ‘raw’ from events in their lives, that they are driven to share personal information at work. Remember that such sharing (around issues such as disability or family issues) may both trigger others and make people vulnerable to bullying. Use company policy and provisions to support individuals. Such sharing should be done first in confidence, to those who need to know, and only if the information is relevant to work. If other information is shared in other work forums, suggest professional therapeutic support away from the workplace. Signpost as appropriate. See https://theperformancepractice.co.uk/stay-sharp-leading-through-anxious-times/.
People dont always move into a passive ‘victim’ state, some may become aggressive perhaps when defending their beliefs, or emotional or life experiences . This is rarely appropriate in the workplace and should be discouraged – formally if necessary.
If they are new to the organisation, explain the difference between the workplace and a therapeutic space.
In other words, take more control by setting limits of what type of information is appropriate to share in what forum.
