Learn about how your behaviours can positively or negatively impact the psychological safety of those around you.

1. Psychological Safety Starts with You
Suzanne Morrison

2. https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannem
@SuzanneMorrison
Agile Coach/Delivery Lead
at M&G Prudential
About Me

3. • Introduction to Psychological Safety
• Identify how your behaviours impact the psychological
safety of others – self reflection
• The brain and psychological safety
• Facilitation techniques to enhance psychological safety
• Try out a liberating structure
• Take away some ideas on how you can improve the
psychological safety of your team
• Find out where to learn more
What to Expect

4. Quick Intro Exercise
Get into pairs, introduce yourself and discuss ….
(1) Why you came to this session?
(2) Have you ever been in a meeting
where you held back and didn’t say
what was on your mind, as you were
worried about negative repercussions?

5. Holding Back – the Research
“Only 3 in 10 employees strongly agree that their
opinions count at work.”
- Gallup Poll, 2017
“85% of respondents reported at least one occasion where they
felt unable to raise a concern with their boss, even though they
felt the issue was important.”
- Journal of Management studies – an exploratory study of employee silence

6. Reasons for
Holding Back
People will
think I’m
ignorant
I’ll look
negative
I’ll look
stupid
I’ll be seen
as
disruptive
REASONS FOR HOLDING
BACK IN THE WORKPLACE

7. Amy Edmundson
“When you withhold your ideas, you rob both
yourself and your team members of small
moments of learning.”
- Amy Edmundson, Harvard University

8. Definition of Psychological Safety
“A shared belief that the team
is safe for interpersonal risk
taking”
– Amy Edmundson, 1999
“being able to show and employ
one's self without fear of negative
consequences of self-image, status
or career”
– William Kahn, 1990

9. Psychological Safety Mentions in Media
Source – The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmundson

10. 1. Psychological Safety
2. Dependability
3. Structure and Clarity
4. Meaning
5. Impact
Top 5 Dynamics for Successful Teams
Project Aristotle

11. Psychological Safety in Medicine

12. Psychological Safety is Not About…
• Being Nice
• Trust
• Personality Type
• Low standards

13. Psychological Safety and Accountability
Psychological Safety
Accountability
ANXIETY ZONE
COMFORT ZONE
LEARNING ZONE
APATHY ZONE

14. Self Reflection
• Read through the questionnaire
• Think about the team that you
lead or work with on a regular
basis
• Give an honest answer to each
of the questions.
• Add up your score.

15. Discuss in Your Table Group
• Did anything interesting come up for you while
you completed the questionnaire?
• Did any of the behaviours stick out to you as
something you are good at or need to improve
on?

16. Behaviours that Increase Psychological Safety
Sharing
failures, fears &
weaknesses
Responding
appreciatively to
feedback
Encouraging
Equal Voice
Admitting your
fallibility
Learning from
failures rather
than blaming

17. Leaders and Psychological Safety
Research shows that those with lower
status in a group or department generally
feel less psychologically safe than those
with higher status
- Teaming, Amy Edmundson

18. Hypothalamus
Autonomic
nervous system
Amygdala
generates fear
• Sweaty palms
• Blood to the extremities
• Increased breathing
• Increased heart rate
Adrenaline

19. The Impact of Fear in the Workplace
Decreases creativity
Makes it difficult to solve problems
Increases cortisol levels over time
Makes it harder to learn (and innovate)

20. Facilitation and Psychological Safety
• Design formats that encourage equal voice
 Round robin
 Silent brainstorming
 Small groups
• Frame the session carefully
 Learning, not blaming
• Appreciate contributions
 A simple “thank you”
 Avoid judgments

21. The Power of Liberating Structures
http://www.liberatingstructures.com
Liberating structures increase
• Inclusivity
• Participation
• Engagement
• Liveliness!

22. 1-2-4-ALL

23. STEP 1 – On your own (3 mins)
Write down 1-3 things that
you can do to help increase
the psychological safety of
the groups / teams that
you work with.

24. STEP 2 – in pairs, 3 minutes
Discuss your ideas in a pair
and choose your favourite
3 ideas

25. STEP 3 – In fours (4 mins)
Discuss your ideas in a four
and choose your favourite
3 ideas

26. STEP 4 – In Table Groups (5 mins)
Discuss your ideas at your
tables and choose your
favourite 3 ideas – 1 per
postit

27. Agile and Psychological Safety

28. Recommended Books

29. Recommended Articles / Videos
• Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace – Tedx talk by Amy Edmundson
• 56 Ideas for building psychological safety - John Cutler asked his twitter followers for ideas
and wrote a blog post about it
• Be the psychological safety that you want to see in the world - the author of this post
explains how he regularly shows vulnerability and the words he uses to do this
• Rework Blog post from Google on Team Effectiveness - large section in here with tips on
building psychological safety and team effectiveness in general
• Good blog post on Psychological Safety from the Friday Feedback site
• Blog post from Impraise on Psychological safety and how it is beneficial for teamwork and
performance reviews
• Help Teams to take Action - re:Work's suggestions including Manager Actions for improving
their team's psychological safety

30. Thankyou!!