psychological safety

By Dionn Schaffner, Chief Diversity Officer, Aurea

Joe Biden’s nomination of Judge Kentaji Brown Jackson is a salient example of how to tactically engage with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace. Biden put action into words: he said he was going to do something, and he did it. He used his resources and power to create opportunities for underrepresented talent to have an opportunity to be successful. That’s a real commitment to DEI, and highlights its importance – whether in your average office or the most powerful court in the country.

One of my favorite quotes on DEI is that diversity is getting invited to the party while inclusion is being asked to dance (Thank you, Verna Myers for this!). It beautifully reflects the difference between building a diverse workforce – hiring folks of color, LGBTQ+, older workers, neurodiverse qualities, etc. – and fully embracing them into company culture. The former is now table stakes; the latter, a must for organizations that want to reap the benefits of diversity in the workplace (including the Supreme Court).

The analogy, however, can’t stop there. To thrive at work, people need to not only be asked to dance, but to feel physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe enough to get out and shake their stuff on the dance floor. You need both parts to be inclusive: the offer/opportunity and the willingness for participation. In other words, you can’t have inclusion without psychological safety.

Psychological safety is a core element of furthering DEI efforts in the workplace. It refers to individuals feeling welcome and safe to express their true selves, feelings, ideas, questions, concerns, and mistakes without fear. It means that they can do so without worrying about being discriminated or retaliated against, punished, humiliated, or suffering additional consequences to their self-image, status, or career development.

In psychologically safe teams, members feel accepted and respected. Teams also perform better. According to research published in the Harvard Business Review, “psychological safety appears to help teams realize the potential of diversity for both performance and well-being.” This is not fluff; it has demonstrated business benefits.

At work, psychological safety comes from both leadership and peers. The support must come from the bottom up and top down to be authentic and impactful.

How leadership can create psychological safety

For leaders, fostering psychological safety starts with transparency. It doesn’t matter if you are the President of a country or the manager of a team. Leadership needs to take a good, hard look at their company’s current state and be honest about what’s working and what’s not. To avoid DEI-as-lip-service, leaders should own up to the task at hand, even if it’s not ideal, and share the situation with their teams.

Part of that transparency involves asking open questions. One of my favorite infographics by Jean Marie DiGiovanna suggests asking questions like:

  1. What’s the thing you see me doing that’s helping me best contribute to the team?
  2. What’s the thing I do that’s distracting from our success?
  3. What’s one thing about you I need to know that will improve our relationship?
  4. What’s one thing you need from me that will enable you to be successful?
  5. What’s one gift, skill, or talent that you have that I’ve overlooked, under-valued or under-utilized?
  6. What motivates you and how can we bring more of that to your work?

The answers may make you uncomfortable. You may not understand them. That’s okay. What’s important is that you ask, listen, and crucially, act on those answers. That may mean doing additional research to further understand the person’s point of view. It may spark an idea to improve your processes, products, or performance. It may require you to do your own work on unconscious biases. All of that is progress towards greater psychological safety.

Leaders must also be accountable. DEI is plagued with performative statements and one-off, box-checking seminars. Identify where you’re starting, share your plan with your team, define your goals, and explain how you will measure them. This process is its own form of the authenticity and vulnerability that underpin psychologically safe teams.

4 ways to help your peers feel psychologically safe

Peers are equally important to creating psychological safety at work. While leadership must set the tone and agenda, we look to our peers for the day-to-day support that makes those feelings of security and acceptance come to life.

How can you help create a psychologically safe environment for your peers?

  • Understand your privilege. “Privilege” can be a charged word. Let yourself get a little uncomfortable. That’s where growth happens! Reflect on any advantages that you’ve had because of your identity and how others may not have experienced things the same way. This isn’t about feeling guilty; it’s about creating understanding, empathy, and respect for others with different life stories.
  • Find ways to connect as people. Reach out to your peers outside of email and Zoom calls. Maybe it’s a quick chat to ask how their day is going, if they have any weekend plans, or if they have tried any good recipes lately. It could be connecting over shared interests or backgrounds. Employee resource groups (ERGs) offer safe places for like-minded people to get to know each other in a context outside of work. Whether it’s “Black women in tech” or “Outdoor enthusiasts” or “Introverts Unite!” – find your people and build a community in a way that works for you.
  • Listen, share, and reflect. One of the most effective ways to overcome the communication challenges that can happen when diverse groups come together is to share lived experiences. It’s easy to have an opinion about a group of people as an abstract concept. It’s much harder when that group has faces, names, and stories to tell. Hear how other folks’ experiences were similar or different to yours. Reflect on how that impacted their journey. Share your truth with honesty and vulnerability. When you show your willingness to be open, others will know that they can be that way with you, too.
  • Advocate if a peer doesn’t feel safe or heard. Allyship is one of the most critical scaffolds on the journey to equality. Speak up. In public or in private, to your manager or HR, be a voice if your peer can’t find theirs.

The result: Our best selves, doing our best work

What happens when leaders and peers take these steps to advance psychological safety? In a word, magic.

People can bring their whole selves to work, from their preferred pronouns to their favorite hairstyles. As a result, they bring new ideas, perspectives, and talents to the table – and because of psychological safety, those ideas, perspectives, and talents can be seen and heard. It enacts a positive feedback cycle as more people feel secure and comfortable, which reverberates up and down the ladder. As individual teams’ cultures expand across the organization, inclusivity and allyship become part of the company DNA.

Everyone benefits from a psychologically safe environment where we can be our best selves and do our best work. I look forward to a workplace where we can all get on the proverbial dance floor and show ‘em what we’ve got. I’m hopeful that the Supreme Court will ask Kentaji Brown Jackson not just to dance, but maybe create a playlist or two that will encourage all of us to dance too.