Psychological safety & performance
In my blog of 10 September 2021, I outlined the roles of leaders in building positive environments for work to thrive. This blog focuses on the overall culture, team environment and the interpersonal relationships that make up a workplace.
Workplace culture / interpersonal interaction factors
The interpersonal landscape of a thriving workplace ecosystem is founded on goodwill and psychological safety and is a learning culture. Its values are clear: respect, kindness, trust and compassion are more common than criticism, negativity and undermining.
The social environment provides a neurobiological context in which we perform. When a workplace is psychologically safe, we relax. In fact, our whole nervous system relaxes and allows our higher cognitive and psychological functions to come to the fore.
I meet a lot of teams who function barely above the line or on the line but who genuinely want to soar above the line. They actively work to identify their shared values and agreed-to behaviours and then cultivate these.
We all need a psychological contract at work that informs the acceptable and unacceptable behaviours of the workplace. A healthy, positive psychological contract ensures that acceptable behaviours support team functioning and undesirable behaviours are seen as unacceptable and those exhibiting those behaviors are held to account (no matter their position in the organisation)
How do you contribute to the team culture and build a healthy ecosystem?
Next Steps in Psychological Safety
To review more on this topic please click the links below: