While many organisations, prioritise physical safety, what about psychological safety?
This is about a safe, caring environment where team members are empowered to raise an alarm when quality is not within the expected standard and are invited to contribute to offering improvement ideas and solutions to problems.
TOYOTA have been using this environment for many years, wrapped up in their core pillar “Respect for People”.
Here are 6 steps to help you create a psychologically safe environment.
1. Core Value-that speaks directly to caring for your people.
2. Strategy- make it inclusive, ensure everyone can be involved in changing the organisation.
3. Training-allow your people to learn valuable skills through day-to-day on-the-job application.
4. Improvement ideas-capture, manage, respect and provide timely feedback on all ideas offered.
5. Team meetings-prioritise the review of safety data above operational data.
6. Give it time-monitor what you’re doing to ensure it’s effective.
“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes’” Amy Edmondson