We Are Struggling

We’re so grateful for your thoughts and comments after last week’s post titled, This is Bullsh!t. We’ve heard from some of you that the term psychological safety doesn’t resonate with you or your teams and you’re struggling to get people to connect with it.

We’ve been working with the concept of psychological safety for the past couple of decades and until recently, had consciously chosen not to call it psychological safety.

For many people, the word “psychological” evokes a sense that the work isn’t about business but more about something that needs to happen behind closed doors in a therapist’s office. So, we can see how this term may not resonate with you or your team.

We encourage you to think about your industry and work environment and then create a word or phrase with your team that will remind all of you of your vision. This will increase the likelihood of people being engaged.

To help you think about what works best for you and your team, here are some phrases we’ve been using and hearing from our clients. 

Our goal is to create:

• a culture of vulnerability-based trust and transparency
• a culture of belonging
• a team where we can genuinely disagree, and then align behind a goal in order to create success
• an environment of acceptance and respect
• an organization where people feel they can influence and are willing to be influenced by others
• a “we-focused” culture
• a department where we’re committed to everyone’s individual success and the team’s success
• the confidence that leaders and colleagues are interested in our different perspectives and will take them seriously
• a place where we can each talk openly about our mistakes in an effort to learn and grow

This week, discuss this with your team and see if you can create a term or definition, together. The act of collaborating on this is a great step in the right direction!

Let us know how it goes.