According to research by Amy Edmondson, PhD, Professor of Leadership at Harvard Business School, psychological safety within the workplace is one of the main contributors to team effectiveness, learning behaviors, and employee satisfaction. Psychological safety is the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. The basis for psychological safety is a workplace where candor is accepted, mistakes are forgiven, questions are considered a strength rather than a weakness, and questioning the status quo occurs without fear. A study by Edmondson published in the Harvard Business Review and a multiyear study at Google both report that the highest performing work teams had high psychological safety.
When psychological safety exists in a workplace, employees feel safe to learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo without fear of embarrassment, marginalization, or punishment. At the 2021 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, Stacey Cordivano, DVM, reported that 67% of respondents in the Facebook group Equine Vet-2-Vet answered “Yes” to the question: “Have you ever been penalized or punished at work for a mistake or for offering an idea?” Globally, studies have shown that only 47% of all employees believe their workplaces are psychologically safe.
Building Psychological Safety in Veterinary Practices
Building psychological safety in veterinary practices is important for reducing turnover and increasing engagement. Studies in the human health care field have shown that disengaged employees lead to safety risks and staff turnover. More turnover means a higher number of less experienced workers on staff, along with higher recruitment and training costs.
Practice leaders are responsible for initiating this change. To increase psychological safety, leaders must be approachable and accessible. They must seek ideas from their team, adopt a learning mindset, and take responsibility for their missteps. In addition, they should be inclusive in decision-making, ask others for help, and take interpersonal risks.
Edmondson recommends three simple steps to increase psychological safety in the workplace:
- Frame work as a learning problem with uncertainty.
- Acknowledge your fallibility as a leader.
- Model curiosity by asking a lot of questions.
By treating mistakes and failures as learning opportunities instead of assigning blame, leaders build trust and encourage team members to innovate and adopt new ideas.
Final Thoughts
Once the leadership team has successfully created this environment through leading by example, they should demonstrate ongoing appreciation for the team’s candor and feedback so it becomes normalized. Practice leaders must continually encourage and reinforce the goal of progress, not perfection. By staying open to new ideas and feedback, the benefit of more engaged and productive employees will positively affect the culture and the financial bottom line. A workplace with psychological safety is one where the team thrives.
Related Reading
- The Business of Practice: Building Confidence in Entry-Level Veterinarians
- Business Briefs: New Thoughts on Communication for Equine Veterinarians
- AAEP Commission for Veterinary Sustainability: Help for Changing Your Practice’s Culture
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