Psychological Safety
Psychological safety refers to shared beliefs held by members of a team that it’s safe to take risks; openly express their ideas, concerns, and divergent opinions; speak up with questions; share bad news or concerns; and admit mistakes—all without fear of negative consequences. It is not about complaining or arguing, but instead promotes positive interpersonal interactions within the group or team.
Three fundamentals of psychological safety
- Normalize failure—reframe failures as learning opportunities
- Everything is an experiment—embrace risk and failure as paths leading to success
- Acknowledge your own fallibility—welcome difficult emotions, admit mistakes, share lessons learned and share those lessons with others
Four steps to implement psychological safety in the classroom
- Develop an open mindset—acknowledge, reflect, and learn from mistakes[1,2]
- Use inclusive language[3] to create a sense of shared identity[2] and show students you respect them[1]
- Create a safe space to solicit feedback from students[1] and engage in listening[2] without interrupting or talking over each other
- Encourage students to ask questions[2] and publicly acknowledge their contribution to classroom discourse[3]
Sources: [1] Dr. Caitlin Tucker, Is Your Classroom A Psychologically Safe Space? 3 Steps to Creating a Psychologically Safe Learning Environment. [2] InnerDrive, Everything you need to know about psychological safety in the classroom. [3] Harvard Graduate School of Education, Instructional Moves, Step 2: Creating Psychological Safety.
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Resources
Presentation and resources from the March 22, 2024 "Making it Safe to Speak" Psychological Safety workshop
with the "Psychological Safety Playbook" author Minette Norman
- Slide presentation from Minette Norman with interactive responses from the attendees (PDF)
- "How Psychologically Safe Is Your Workplace" Forbes article with quotes from Minette Norman (PDF)
- "Teaching: The rewards—and risks—of sharing failure stories" Chronicle of Higher Education article (PDF)
Free "Psychological Safety Playbook" Tools and Discussion Guide
- Psychological Safety Playbook: Overview-Five Levers to Increase Psychological Safety (PDF)
- Psychological Safety Playbook: Five Essential Tools (PDF)
- Psychological Safety Playbook: 25 Moves to Increasing Psychological Safety in the Workplace (PDF)
- Psychological Safety Playbook: Play-by-Play Postcards (PDF)
- Psychological Safety Playbook: Discussion Guide (PDF)
