Psychological Safety - Framework: 4 Stages of Psychological Safety by Timothy R Clark

This blogpost shares insights into different frameworks and practices used to nurture the psychological safety of a learning organization. As these frameworks and practices have various layers of profundities to be covered in multiple articles, we will have a bird-eye view and experience the beautiful wisdom they offer!


Framework 1:  The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™:

This wonderful model of Timothy R. Clark is a universal pattern that reflects the natural progress of human needs in social settings. Teams progress through the following four stages and create a culture of "rewarded vulnerability"


The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ - https://www.leaderfactor.com/psychological-safety

Stage 1 - Inclusion Safety:

Do I feel included?

Inclusion Safety satisfies the basic human need to connect and belong. It is a human right which is not earned but owed! Inclusion activates and releases the power of diversity. It eliminates junk theories of superiority which rationalize exclusionary behaviour and give weightage to the worthiness test rather than a worth test to each other.

Ask yourself these questions and evaluate how you are doing in putting Inclusion Safety into practice.
  • Do you treat people that you consider of lower status/role/stature differently than those of higher status? If so, why?
  • How do you acknowledge and show sensitivity and appreciation for the cultural differences that exist on your team?
  • Do you feel superior to other people? If so, why?
  • Is the moral principle of inclusion a convenient of inconvenient truth for you?
  • What conscious bias do you have?
  • Where do you exercise soft forms of exclusion to maintain barriers?
  • What individual or group are you having a hard time including even if they are doing you no real harm? Why?
Concrete behaviours that create Inclusion safety at work
  • Teach inclusion as human need and right
  • Introduce yourself at the first opportunity
  • Learn peoples' names  and how to pronounce them
  • Physically face people
  • Listen and pause
  • Ask twice as much as you tell
  • Meet a person in their physical space
  • Move to mutual discovery quickly
  • Avoid comparisons and competitions
 

Stage 2 - Learner Safety:

Can I grow?

Learner Safety satisfies the basic human need to learn and grow. It allows us to feel safe in all aspects of the learning process like asking questions, giving and receiving feedback, experimenting, and even making mistakes. Learning is both intellectual and emotional. It's an interplay of the head and the heart. Learning involves risk and Learner Safety is to create an environment in which we can detach fear from mistakes. And, it brings a competitive advantage.

Ask yourself these questions and evaluate how you are doing in putting Learner Safety into practice.

  • Does your team punish failure? Do you punish failure?
  • Do you model vulnerability in your own learning?
  • Do you encourage other members of your team to take learning risks?
  • When you start working with new people, do you judge their aptitude immediately or do you suppress that impulse?
  • When was the last time you created a nurtured learning environment for the other person's curiosity and motivation?
  • How can you lower the barrier of learner anxiety to the point that the most inhibited and fearful member of the team will come forward and engage?
  • Do you demonstrate an aggressive, self-directed learning disposition?
  • Do you embrace a humble learning mindset?
  • Do you show an openness to learn from anyone regardless of their rank and influence?
  • Do you model this enthusiasm for learning to your team?

Concrete behaviours that create Inclusion safety at work
  • Make learning a collaboration, not a competition
  • Adopt a learning mindset
  • Assess the learning style and disposition of each person
  • Encourage your private and public learners
  • Share what your are learning
  • Help your team members get small wins
  • Invite others to think beyond their roles
  • Share past mistakes
  • Ask for help from every level of the team
  • Frame problems before you solve problems


Stage 3 - Contributor Safety:

Can I create value?

Contributor Safety satisfies the basic human need to contribute and make a difference. The more we contribute, the more confidence and competence we develop. When we create contributor safety for others, we empower them with autonomy, guidance, and encouragement in exchange for effort and results. Contributor Safety invites discretionary efforts. It’s a matter of personal discretion to contribute or to slack off. And, one of the powerful things we can do to foster Contributor Safety is to help others to think beyond their roles.

Ask yourself these questions and evaluate how you are doing in putting Contributor Safety into practice.

  • Do you collaborate effectively with other members of your team?
  • Do you respect only the high achievers and highly educated or do you recognize that answers and insights can come from some of the most unlikely people?
  • Can you be genuinely happy for the success of others?
  • Do you empower others without micromanaging them?
  • Have you ever withheld Contributor safety from someone when they have earned it?
  • Do you freely share your experience, knowledge and skills?
  • Are you emotionally advanced beyond needing to hear yourself talk?
  • Do you see the potential of others on your team?

Concrete behaviours that create Inclusion safety at work

  • Rotate the conducting of meetings
  • Clarify roles
  • Recognize accomplishment
  • Don't correct with anger, blame and shame
  • Identify stall points
  • Celebrate small wins
  • Shift from tell to ask
  • Share your values
  • Share your workstyle and communication preferences
  • Create conditions for peak engagement

Stage 4 - Challenger Safety:

Can I be candid about change?

Challenger Safety satisfies the basic human need to make things better. It provides respect and permission to dissent and disagree when we think something needs to change and it’s time to say so. Challenger Safety allows us to overcome the pressure to conform and gives us a license to innovate and be creative. It has to increase the intellectual friction - the raw material that we need to solve problems, create solutions, make breakthroughs, and most importantly, innovate and decrease social friction - that we are getting temperamental, we're getting defensive, and human beings have a tendency to do that. the disruption question sequence allows for inquiry in organizations and consists of three parts

  1. Why do we do it this way?
  2. What if we tried something else?
  3. How might we do that?

By asking these three questions, leaders signal to their group that there are no limitations or constraints in challenging the status quo. The disruption question sequence is the heart of innovation, and it fuels an organization’s ability to engage in divergent thinking and developing Challenger Safety.

Ask yourself these questions and evaluate how you are doing in putting Challenger Safety into practice.

  • Do you allow others to challenge you?
  • Do you give them a license to dissent and disagree?
  • Do you get defensive or take things personally when someone gives you constructive feedback or suggests an alternative course of action?
  • Do you maintain your poise and composure under pressure?
  • Can you tolerate a high level of candor?
  • Can you really debate issues on their merits in a stress-filled environment and not resort to personal criticism?
  • Can you bring humility to your team interactions and lay down all of your ego defense mechanisms?
  • Can you keep the intellectual friction up and the social friction down?
  • Are questions welcome on your team?
  • Do you feel the risk of ridicule on your team?
  • When was the last time you were brave and challenged the status quo?
 
Concrete behaviours that create Inclusion safety at work
  • Take your finger off the fear button
  • Assign dissent
  • Encourage others to think beyond their roles
  • Respond constructively to disruptive ideas and bad news
  • When you reject feedback, explain why
  • Weigh in last
  • Display no pride of authorship
  • Model vulnerability
  • Reward vulnerability
  • Reward shots on goal

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety™ is the first practical, hands-on guide that provides a research-based framework to help leaders transform their organizations into sanctuaries of inclusion and incubators of innovation. Tim Clark encourages readers to become cultural architects in their social spheres.


Coach Ram


Credits: Balachandhiran Sankaran

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