How UK leaders can create psychologically safe, supportive workplaces
Psychological safety turns difficult DEI conversations into leadership opportunities.
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As stories of social unrest fill our newsfeeds, many leaders may be concerned about the conversations this can spark at work. With our modern workforce being more diverse than ever, different perspectives are guaranteed to arise, and staff can feel heightened anxiety, fear or anger during periods of social tension due to their individual identities and lived experiences.
A common reaction is to shy away from having these difficult conversations, particularly around contentious DEI topics, for fear of saying the wrong thing or causing unintended offense. But here’s the thing – it is in this state of discomfort that we can learn the most about ourselves, how we interact with others, and build trust with people who are different from us.
To truly nurture inclusion, where talent feel able to bring their whole diverse selves to work, forward-thinking entrepreneurs must create a psychological safe environment where these difficult discussions are encouraged, not avoided.
Nurturing psychological safety to have honest and open conversations
To nurture inclusion, we need to have open and honest, and occasionally difficult or uncomfortable, conversations about bias. For this, we need psychological safety.
Psychological safety has two aspects. The first aspect is safe spaces where everyone can share their ideas, questions, concerns and even mistakes without being fearful of punishment or humiliation. The second aspect is about employees feeling safe to take risks. Psychological safety, across both aspects, is crucial to ensuring that we can engage in difficult DEI topics around social unrest, discrimination, bias, inequality and inequity. What can entrepreneurs do to nurture psychological safety for these conversations to happen?
Move from debate to discussion and dialogue
Leaders must make space in their organisations for multiple realities to coexist – it is this diversity of thought and experience that sparks innovation. To create this psychologically safe space, we need to move away from debate to discussion and dialogue.
When we debate, it’s all about winning – each person takes a stand ‘for’ or ‘against’ and tries to convince each other of their rightness. But this is a form of non-relational communication – it only increases defensiveness on both sides, makes us more attached to our own view, and leaves little room for understanding.
When we engage in discussions and dialogues instead, we are open to learning about multiple perspectives while examining our own assumptions and pre-held beliefs. We can reflect on the limitations of our views while considering other perspectives. So, the next time you find yourself discussing a DEI topic, resist the temptation to debate and focus on having a discussion and dialogue.
Practice inclusive communication
Think about leaving every space you are in more inclusive than when you entered it. This requires leaders to assess how they communicate and the language they use. For psychological safety to blossom in your workplace, learning to communicate inclusively is vital. Here are four steps to achieve this:
- Avoid jargon and complex language
Go back to the basics of what DEI actually means when engaging on the topic. Avoid using language and jargon that makes it complex both for you and for others and creates opportunities for misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Keep it simple and grounded in the core principles of what DEI is about – uniqueness, fairness and belonging.
- Make an effort with people’s names
Our names reflect our identity, culture and background. They are important to us so make a genuine effort to spell and pronounce another person’s name in emails, text messages and in conversations the way that they would spell and pronounce it.
- Ask open-ended questions to get to know people
My favourite phrase that I use is ‘tell me about yourself.’ It allows the other person to control the narrative and what they feel safe to share with us. Whatever their response is, believe it and avoid asking follow-on questions that reflect the stereotypes in your mind about who they ‘should be’ or ‘should not be.’
- Redirect focus from intention to impact
There is a big difference between intention and impact. We often think that our intentions are good enough. For example, we may say, ‘But I didn’t mean it that way.’ While you may have had good intentions, remember that the impact that you have matters. If harm is caused, then we need to take ownership and take accountability.
Engage in failures that allow us to learn and grow
When it comes to DEI, entrepreneurs have all eyes on them to lead by example. Naturally, many fear saying the wrong thing, using the wrong terminology, or being biased. But what if we could reframe these moments when we ‘get it wrong’ as opportunities for learning and growth? Professor Amy Edmondson refers to these as intelligent failures which happen in new territory, where the context presents a credible opportunity to advance a desired goal, when it is informed by available knowledge and when the failure is as small as it can be to provide valuable insights.
Imagine you overhear two colleagues discussing a news story about social unrest. You witness one colleague using discriminatory language, but you don’t know whether to step in or not. What if the other person wants to address the discrimination themselves? What if in doing so you inadvertently take away their agency and voice? This is an excellent opportunity to engage in an intelligent failure. It might be new territory, but you have the know-how and, in the bigger scheme of things, the failure is small. What is the worst thing that can happen? The person you were trying to support is upset with you? That is a risk worth taking for a possible positive outcome of addressing discrimination at play.
So, instead of focusing on getting it right all the time – and in turn avoiding engagement – focus on using every interaction as an opportunity to learn from an intelligent failure. Be curious and ask yourself the following questions:
- What can I learn from this?
- How can I change the words I am using to be more inclusive?
- What words, language or topics do I need to learn more about?
Psychological safety for all
DEI topics are difficult to discuss. But we must all engage in these uncomfortable conversations to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. When leaders ditch debate for discussion and dialogue, practice inclusive communication and engage in intelligent failures, teams feel psychologically safe to express differing opinions and call out bias, in turn fostering truly diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace cultures.
As stories of social unrest fill our newsfeeds, many leaders may be concerned about the conversations this can spark at work. With our modern workforce being more diverse than ever, different perspectives are guaranteed to arise, and staff can feel heightened anxiety, fear or anger during periods of social tension due to their individual identities and lived experiences.
A common reaction is to shy away from having these difficult conversations, particularly around contentious DEI topics, for fear of saying the wrong thing or causing unintended offense. But here’s the thing – it is in this state of discomfort that we can learn the most about ourselves, how we interact with others, and build trust with people who are different from us.
To truly nurture inclusion, where talent feel able to bring their whole diverse selves to work, forward-thinking entrepreneurs must create a psychological safe environment where these difficult discussions are encouraged, not avoided.
