How to harness peer power to support psychological safety and wellbeing
Almost 15 years ago, the People Operations team at Google conducted a piece of research to find out what makes an effective team. They identified five key dynamics, but ‘far and away the most important’ (Julia Rozovsky, Google) was ‘psychological safety’; taking risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed.
The term, first coined by Harvard’s Amy Edmundson in 1999, describes interpersonal risk; do we feel safe enough with our peers to ask the ‘dumb’ questions or share our point of view, even when it challenges the current order.
Feeling safe is, according to Maslow’s seminal ‘Hierarchy of Needs’ (1943) a basic human need and the foundation for all human progress. An absence of trust within a team or organisational structure can be a fatal blow to the team’s success and the psychological well-being of the team members (Lencioni, 2002). Without psychological safety, we can feel demotivated, disengaged and, at worst, stressed and anxious.
Psychological safety is the prerequisite needed for well-being at work to exist. There is little point in any organisation investing in a well-being agenda if the average employee doesn’t feel empowered to offer their opinion in a meeting or is scared to make mistakes in their work for fear of reprisal. 89% of people in a recent survey conducted by McKinsey stated that feeling psychologically safe at work is essential to them.
It is the interpersonal nature of psychological safety that is so crucial for organisations to tune into. Leaders can help to set the right tone by cultivating compassion in their teams (McKinsey, 2020), which can be achieved by encouraging candour and creating opportunities for teams to share their vulnerabilities as well as their ideas.
Peer conversations like these will always occur naturally as we make connections and alliances with people that we have an affinity with, but these can be exclusive and create tension with those who are not invited or able to participate. Actively creating opportunities for peer relationships to flourish for everyone can break down barriers and enable empathy to thrive in open and honest communication.
In this way, psychological safety is a crucial part of the puzzle when it comes to creating a more inclusive environment. When we feel safe, we are empowered to ‘speak up’ (Edmondson, 1999) and be heard. There are still questions about whether or not, even the most well-meaning organisations, create safe spaces for all opinions to be considered with equal importance. This creates a disparity between those who feel protected by their working environment and those who do not. There is an opportunity for active, encouraged and structured peer support to fill this gap; making inclusivity central to the process of developing and learning from each other.
Hudson Jordan, a Managing Director at Charles Schwab, advocates that, ‘creating an environment of involvement, respect, and connection — where the richness of ideas, backgrounds, and perspectives are harnessed to create business value’ is the cornerstone of an inclusive culture. Having someone, other than your manager, to support you is both life and career-enhancing; according to a Gallup survey in 2018, those who have a work ‘best friend’ are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs than those who don’t, and connections with peers fuel more productivity and a greater enjoyment of work (Gallup, 2018).
As we navigate hybrid working environments, it becomes even more important to create a psychologically safe culture (HBR, 2021), but doing so is harder than it was pre-pandemic.
Organisations need to do more to put peer-support at the centre of their culture. In doing so, they will protect the well-being of their employees, creating a safe space for everyone to share ideas and vulnerabilities, support each other, learn and grow.
