7 strategies to increase psychological safety and belonging in your organisation (and they work!)
“Belonging is being accepted for you. Fitting in is being accepted for being like everyone else. If I get to be me, I belong. If I have to be like you, I fit in.”
For years I struggled with belonging. As someone with a disability, I felt different from others. Through the skills learnt as a Paralympic athlete, I was able to love and accept my difference, understand who I really am, and embrace a sense of belonging with others. It was a long journey, but one that has made me acutely aware of helping others to feel safe, included and comfortable.
Creating an environment of belonging is now an organisational standard. But there are also significant business outcomes, both cultural and financial, that can be realised by getting it right.
So, the question begs…how can you create psychologically safe environments where people feel they truly belong?
This article unpacks the concepts of psychological safety and belonging, providing a range of powerful and practical strategies to get you started.
What is psychological safety and what is it not?
Psychological safety is a belief that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks in the workplace without the fear of punishment, humiliation or negative consequences to your self-image, status or career. This includes feeling safe and valued to:
Speak up about mistakes or concerns
Bring up ideas and questions
Express who you are and be yourself.
But let’s be clear what it’s not. According to Amy C Edmondson, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, psychological safety is not:
Being nice
Feeling a sense of job security
A guarantee all your ideas will be applauded
An excuse to complain
Permission to slack off.
Psychological safety improves team performance
The latest research indicates that psychological safety in teams positively affects performance, creativity, risk-taking and innovation, whilst improving team cohesion and staff satisfaction. It also drives effective communication, trust and collaboration, reducing employee anxiety and stress.
To support this research, Google’s two-year study on team performance deemed psychological safety the number one predictor of high-performing teams.
How to create psychological safety in the workplace
So, the question begs, how can you create a psychologically safe culture in your workplace? Here are my 3 top tips.
Tip 1: View conflict as an opportunity to collaborate
Conflict doesn’t have to be a negative experience. By asking ‘How can we achieve a mutually desirable outcome?’ employees can work together and practice effective communication, ultimately leading to greater trust and respect.
It can be also helpful to think through possible reactions, objections or points of contention prior to socialising ideas or directives. By gathering evidence in advance, you can reduce the level of conflict that may occur, and help your team understand the ‘why’ behind your decisions. A key question to think about is ‘What are 3 ways my listeners/colleagues are likely to respond?’
Tip 2: Care about others (genuinely)
Demonstrate genuine concern and interest for your colleagues as people – not as workers. Get to know who they are, what makes them tick, their passions outside of work, their home situations and so on. This deeper level of interpersonal connection helps team members to speak up and be vulnerable.
In addition, to facilitate personal or group sharing it’s important to invite participation by asking powerful questions. By doing so, you can arrive at the best tentative plan. Questions, courtesy of Amy C Edmonson, include:
Who has a different perspective?
What are we missing here?
What do others think?
What other options could we consider?
How would a competitor approach this?
Encourage everyone involved to listen and respond with curiosity and empathy, and to ask themselves ‘How would I want others to respond to me if I spoke up.’ The goal is not to arrive at a consensus, but to gain consent from the group to proceed with a safe cause of action.
Tip 3: Provide ways for employees to provide feedback (and take it seriously)
For employees to feel comfortable to bring up ideas or concerns, there must be mechanisms available to capture these insights. Whether it’s through online collaboration tools, in-person discussions, emails, or group think-tanks, the lines of communication must be constantly open, and people’s ideas must be appreciated and acknowledged.
It is also important for leaders as well as other team members to own up to their mistakes. This is an opportunity to celebrate failures as learnings, be vulnerable and look at how things can be improved.
Belonging is at the heart of psychological safety
Belonging and psychological safety are closely linked. A sense of belonging in the workplace can help you to feel more safe, secure and confident, which in turn drives feelings of psychological safety.
So, what is belonging? Belonging is a fundamental human need. We all crave feeling connected, accepted, valued, included and respected as humans. We all want to matter and feel social connection with those around us, especially at work.
The business case for belonging
Research indicates that feelings of belonging significantly affect an organisation’s bottom-line, increasing job performance by 56%, reducing turnover by 50% and reducing sick days by 75%.
The feeling of belonging also protects against stress and increases resiliency. However, when we feel socially isolated it triggers the same area of the brain as physical pain and can be psychologically, emotionally and even physically harmful.
With 40% of people feeling isolated and ostracised at work, it’s no wonder that decreased job dissatisfaction, poor communication, increased stress, lower productivity, lack of motivation and even mental health issues (such as depression and anxiety) are rampant in our workplaces.
So, how can you create an organisation that fosters a sense of belonging in their employees? Here are my top 4 tips.
Tip 4: Create opportunities for social bonding
Social bonds can be created in a range of ways. Workplaces can consider the structure of teams, regular opportunities for social interactions (e.g. team days, office events etc), and opportunities for group collaborations to solve specific problems, as just some ideas to build social bonds. By creating these connections, people are more likely to feel a sense of inclusion and belonging.
Tip 5: Treat others like they are gold
Make a genuine effort to engage with others, meet new people, and approach all interactions with kindness. Conversation, including being vulnerable and skilfully disclosing information about yourself, is critical to increasing a sense of belonging.
According to Manisha Amin, CEO, Centre for Inclusive Design and Nick Rohrlach, CEO Velocity, Virgin Australia, belonging is also fostered by doing the following:
Thinking less about yourself, and more about others
Focusing on your similarities, rather than your differences
Approaching people with an open mind
Practicing an attitude of acceptance.
Tip 6: Ensure leaders understand the importance of belonging and how to foster it
Leaders have a core role in creating a culture of belonging. Manisha and Nick also believe the best way for leaders to navigate this is to:
Develop a culture of psychological safety
Treat everyone equally and serve as a fair-minded ally
Promote and celebrate diversity
Acknowledge individual contributions
Ensure you’re familiar with D&I Policies, Practices, Programs and flexible work arrangements and can communicate relevant policies to employees
Protect others from potential exclusionary behaviours (within the organisation
Share personal stories about how they have coped and overcome isolation or exclusion challenges
Ask people what they need to better understand the kind of support employees want and value
Invite employee feedback and take it seriously
Seek ideas from teammates about how they can improve your organisation’s culture and foster greater belonging
Mentor others to build a deeper personal relationship
Understand who you are and allow people to see you
Improve your cultural intelligence ‘CQ’. This Tedx talk by Julia Middleton is very useful in understanding your own culture, how you master it and how important it is for leaders crossing borders.
Tip 7: Create a shared organisational purpose
Having a shared purpose, values and goals can significantly increase feelings of belonging. These foundations help people to feel that:
They belong to something they value
They have the power to bring about change when it’s needed
Their work is significant.
An organisational vision statement articulates why your organisation exists, its ambitions and desired future state. Used to shape an organisation’s culture, a vision statement guides internal operations and decision-making whilst ensuring the organisation remains focussed on its core objectives.
If your organisation doesn’t have a vision, purpose or values, we encourage you to craft them in partnership with your staff base. They will stand as powerful and unifying strategic foundations that will engage, motivate and create a sense of belonging within your workforce.
If you’re inspired by this article and would like to increase individual, team and organisational psychological safety and belonging, why not consider me for group workshop facilitation, masterclasses or keynote speaking.