Safety is top of mind in the landscape industry, but one area that can be overlooked is creating a feeling of psychological safety in the workplace.
Psychological safety is about creating a sense of trust where employees feel they can express their opinions honestly without fear of humiliation or punishment. It is not a way to avoid accountability to ensure everyone is comfortable.
When your team members don’t feel safe to speak up, you can end up pushing out initiatives that don’t make sense in the field, fresh ideas can go unsaid, and productivity issues can fly under the radar.
Keys for Creating Psychological Safety
These practices for establishing psychological safety are not one-and-done tasks but should be conducted on a regular basis.
1. Lead with Humility
Your team can’t operate from a psychologically safe place if it’s not modeled by the leaders in your organization. Obviously, this starts with you being able to take responsibility for your own mistakes and show how to discuss tough topics in a constructive way.
If you deflect blame for missteps, you can expect that to trickle down throughout the company, as no one wants to feel at fault. Instead, when you take ownership for mistakes, it shows that accountability is expected from everyone.
Being humble enough to be open to others’ ideas and suggestions is also important. If team members are quickly shut down with ‘That’s not how we do things here’ and no further explanation, employees will soon stop making recommendations at all.
2. Provide Opportunities to Share Feedback
While some employees may share their thoughts unprompted, this can be few and far between, as most may not feel it’s their place to make critiques. Instead, it’s best to build in specific times where your team can reflect and share their thoughts on matters. The more routine the questions are, the less intimidating they will feel to speak up.
It’s best to ask specific questions, rather than leaving things open-ended as well. For instance, during morning huddles, you could ask, ‘What might slow us down today?’ or at post-job debriefs, ‘What should we do differently next time?’ If you are looking for ways to improve your overall safety, one question to ask the team at the end of each project is “Was everything as safe as you would like it to be?”
Also, keep in mind the cultural differences you may have with your staff and provide multiple channels where employees can share their concerns or ideas.
For example, in Latino cultures, there is a large emphasis on obedience and respect, and publicly disagreeing with a manager can come across as disrespectful, instead of a constructive disagreement. However, they may feel more comfortable sharing their ideas in a one-on-one setting.
Remember that silence doesn’t always equal agreement. In some cases, organizations may try to reach a consensus as quickly as possible rather than engage in healthy debate.
3. Celebrate Employee Voices
How you respond to employee feedback plays a major role in whether employees feel they can speak their minds or admit to mistakes. Anger, blame or sarcasm are all reactions that can quickly ensure individuals don’t volunteer any input more than absolutely necessary.
When a mistake does happen, focus on the root cause by asking questions, such as ‘Where did the communication break down?’ or ‘Was the timeline realistic?’ rather than finger-pointing.
If you respond by thanking employees for catching an issue or voicing a concern, over time, employees will learn that raising safety concerns or quality issues isn’t considered complaining. Let them know you appreciate their help in making the company more professional. You can encourage this behavior by giving that employee a shoutout during a meeting.
Even if you are unable to act on every suggestion, let team members know that you’ve heard them and provide clear reasons why a change can’t be made, so they know you’re actually listening.
Company Check-Up
You may assume that your company is already a psychologically safe workplace, but it’s good to reflect and talk with your team regularly to see if there are any areas you could improve.
Questions to ask when evaluating your organization’s psychological safety include:
- When you receive bad news from an employee, how do you typically react?
- If an employee makes a mistake, is it held against them?
- Do team members feel comfortable bringing up problems and tough issues?
- Is it safe for your team members to take a risk?
- Do employees feel comfortable asking others for help?
- Do employees feel their concerns are taken seriously?
- Do quieter employees have a way to share their input?
- Do you thank employees for flagging safety, quality or client issues?
- When an issue is made known, do you make changes based on employee feedback?
