Ep 15 Building Psychological Safety - Communication Strategies That Make All The Difference

In this episode, I explore the concept of psychological safety and share specific communication practices that can transform your team culture.

Understanding Psychological Safety: The Four Stages. Building on Harvard professor Amy Edmondson's research and Timothy Clark's framework, I explain how psychological safety develops through four distinct stages:

• Level 1: Inclusion Safety – "Do I belong here? Can I be myself?"
• Level 2: Learner Safety – "Can I take risks and make mistakes without fear of judgment?"
• Level 3: Contributor Safety – "Are my unique gifts valued? Am I adding value?"
• Level 4: Challenger Safety – "Can I question things, including authority and established ways?"

Create Inclusion Safety Through Genuine Connection

• Acknowledge actively, deliberately drawing people into conversation.
• Move beyond generic questions like "Any other thoughts?" to specific invitations: "Joan, you've worked with similar clients before, what's your take on this?"
• Validate emotional realities before jumping to solutions

Build Learner Safety Through Better Responses

1. Change how you respond to questions. Replace sighs or "As we discussed..." with "I'm glad you asked that"
2. Normalize not knowing. Make "I don't know, but let's find out" stronger than pretending to have all the answers
3. Reframe mistakes as learning opportunities through questions like "What can we learn from this?"

Nurture Contributor Safety Through Recognition

• Give specific, meaningful recognition that connects contributions to impact
• Seek perspective before driving toward solutions
• Implement ideas with proper acknowledgment

Develop Challenger Safety Through Open Communication: 

• Invite challenge with phrases like "Before we finalize this, what might we be missing?"
• Respond with curiosity instead of defensiveness when ideas are challenged
• Reward constructive dissent

These stages build on each other – you can't expect people to challenge the status quo (stage 4) if they don't even feel included (stage 1).

Personal Responsibility: Everyone plays a role.

• Practice appropriate vulnerability
• Be proactive about building trust
• Develop resilience to imperfect feedback
• Take ownership of growth

Remember, creating psychological safety isn't about perfection; it's about being intentional about communication. Research consistently shows that teams with high psychological safety innovate more, make fewer errors, and adapt better to change.

Resources Mentioned:

• Amy Edmondson's research on psychological safety
• Timothy Clark's book "The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety"
• "The First 90-Days: A Team Approach to Onboarding" course. Contact me for more information.

To learn more about my services and for additional tools to enhance your leadership impact, visit ClaireLaughlin.com and connect with me on social channels @ClaireLaughlinConsulting.