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7 Key Reasons Why People Won’t Speak Up Unless You Create Psychological Safety First

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Hi everyone, it’s Maree. Welcome to the Respectful Workplace Insights newsletter with weekly tips for building trust, safety and a thriving inclusive, performance culture.

In this edition we visit 7 key reasons why people will resist speaking up unless you create psychological safety FIRST!

It features the importance of creating a respectful workplace environment FIRST rather than just telling people it’s safe to speak up around here.

Here’s the thing …

People need to FEEL and EXPERIENCE the environment as safe to speak up in.

Today, fear of speaking up is the Number One issue globally for organisations building their respectful workplace culture.

In the 90’s I worked at Telstra, training team members nationally across Australia as well as delivering Telstra’s public courses in Telephone Courtesy and Etiquette, Customer Service, Sales and Outbound Telemarketing.

Back then, although the term psychosocial safety hadn’t been coined, many people were gripped by the fear of calling people they didn’t know.

Call resistance showed up as:

  • Fear of bothering people by intruding or being pushy
  • Fear of rejection
  • Fear of failure
  • Fear of losing emotional control or someone becoming angry
  • Fear of not getting it right – saying the wrong thing the wrong way
  • Fear of the unknown – not knowing what to say
  • Fear of appearing ignorant – being wrong or not knowing enough.

Threat has been driving human beings since the beginning of mankind.

Today, psychosocial safety is defined as “An individual’s perception that they feel socially safe to engage in interpersonal risk taking.” – Linda Ray 2021.

Google discovered through their Project Aristotle in 2016 that Psychological Safety was the Number 1 pre-requisite of an effective team.

The key differentiator they discovered; it didn’t matter so much about WHO was on the team but HOW the team interacted with each other.

“Embracing psychological safety means creating a respectful workplace environment free of harmful behaviour, where everyone feels empowered and safe to speak up freely.” – Maree Wrack

Sounds utopian, doesn’t it?

Psychological safety happens inside a team context as a shared belief by ALL members of the team.

That’s why creating psychological safety first means creating an environment where everyone trusts their workplace is safe – people feel seen, heard, valued, understood and acknowledged positively.

 

The 7 key reasons why psychological safety needs to be created first

  1. If disrespectful team cultural issues of hierarchy, competitiveness, lack of inclusivity and unsupportive behaviour aren’t resolved, a comfortable social environment of openness, respect, trust and collaboration won’t be possible. People won’t feel safe to speak up.
  2. If leaders and managers are distant, unapproachable and displaying favouritism, they won’t be communicating with empathy, so team members won’t feel comfortable and safe to speak up and express concerns.
  3. If the friction of strained relationships, conflict and the lack of cohesion in a toxic workplace environment isn’t shifted to one of building flourishing, supportive relationships, individuals won’t feel a sense of connection and belonging, They won’t feel safe to speak up.
  4. If diversity isn’t valued and inclusion isn’t promoted, an unwelcoming or discriminatory environment will hinder social comfort. … people won’t feel accepted or respected and … they won’t feel safe to speak up.

5. If limited communication channels and barriers to effective communication aren’t addressed … there won’t be clear and open lines of communication to promote understanding and collaboration. People won’t feel safe to speak up.

6. If conflict within team dynamics due to a lack of communication that hinders respectful conversations isn’t resolved, there isn’t any chance of increasing trust, mutual respect, connection and a comfortable social environment. People won’t feel safe to speak up.

7. If people don’t experience personal social comfort, as a result of being excluded, experiencing harassment and negative social interactions in the past, unless a psychologically safe environment is created, they won’t develop social skills to naturally feel at ease and comfortable speaking up in social situations.

Creating a respectful workplace culture first that encourages open communication, values diverse perspectives and ensures protection against any backlash can help mitigate the fear of speaking up.

 

 

The bottom line is …

First things first. Create a psychologically safe environment first.

With a focus on implementation, the rest will follow.

The good news is a safe environment can be created at speed today by using a Psychological Safety Diagnostic Tool to measure the levels of trust and safety across an entire organisation.

If you’d like to know more about how you can fast track your psychologically safe environment first, here’s a link to book a Chat with Maree or email maree@upshiftsolutions.com.au

Respectful Workplace Insights is a weekly newsletter I am publishing on LinkedIn to highlight some of the things that get in the way of creating a respectful workplace culture.

Eliminating disrespectful unproductive and depleting conversations and behaviours that are getting in the way of building respectful alignment and performance is where we start.

Each week I’ll offer tips on how to do that so you can create a respectful workplace culture where everyone feels safe and included.

#psychologicalsafety #trust #firstthingsfirst #performance #respectfulworkplaceculture #respectfulworkplaceenvironment #inclusiveleadership

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