So, you've used Immersion to assess the safety of colleagues in your workplace, and you see there's an opportunity to improve. Looking for tips and tricks to do so? No worries, we've got you covered!
People feel psychologically safe when they feel valued, respected, and have a sense of belonging to a group. To improve Psychological Safety in any group setting, including the workplace, it's important to create an environment where people feel they can safely share their opinions, take risks, challenge ideas, and ask questions without fear of retribution or without worrying they will be judged by their colleagues.
A few tips to improve safety in your environment:
Increase Confidence:
Make it clear everyone has a voice and ideas are valued and respected
Offer ways for people to provide anonymous feedback on difficult topics, including on how to improve team’s psychological safety
Reward sharing by implementing ideas
Encourage team members to lead discussions
Motivate Engagement:
Reduce information overload by building a clear agenda at the beginning of the meeting, and building it out with teammate input
Implement media elements to presentations (video, audio, images)
Make time to stop and ask for input
Encourage questions and curiosity
Ask teammates to challenge ideas, not people
Conduct breakout sessions
Encourage Connection:
Use team-building exercises to create deeper interpersonal relationships
Encourage storytelling and sharing of personal experiences
Acknowledge a teammate’s stress or difficulties and communicate empathy
Share teammate’s successes and acknowledge their efforts
Ask people to explain their thought process
Minimize Stress:
Engage in activities proven to reduce stress (e.g., deep breathing, brief meditation sessions, humor)
Give people autonomy
Don't be afraid to admit when you are wrong or when you don't know something
For more information on the meaning of psychological safety, head to this article.
Have questions about Psychological Safety that weren't answered in this article? No worries! Reach out to your Customer Success representative, or email success@getimmersion.com.