Why Psychological Safety at Work Is Key to Preventing Employee Burnout | Fast Company

Employee wellness, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and strengthening company culture are priorities for many organizations. As firms develop strategies to address these areas, the notion of psychological safety (PS) can serve as a multiplier for positively impacting these areas simultaneously. This short article provides a few ideas for cultivating PS in the workplace. It offers a premise that every interaction within an organization–no matter how small-provides opportunities to foster a culture where employees feel comfortable bringing forward ideas, admitting to their mistakes, and providing honest feedback without fear of repercussion. The article offers tactics for promoting PS, such as hosting regularly scheduled town hall meetings that promote people speaking up, or asking pulse survey questions, such as “Do you feel like you can bring your ideas forward?”  One critical strategy for fostering PS is cultivating manager and leadership capabilities in the skills and behaviors that enable PS within their teams, a topic on which I posted last week. As leaders create opportunities for PS, they build and reinforce a culture of PS overtime. As noted in the article, “some of the nicest environments are the least psychologically safe, but when you can engage in positive conflict and constructive feedback with care and candor—when people can say hard truths to each other—that’s when you really know you have a psychologically safe environment.”