In this blog, Mental Health First Aid instructor, Andy Elwood, looks at the importance of psychological safety and its effects upon team performance.
A great deal of research has been carried out over the last few years around psychological safety and the difference that brings to an organisation.
One study most people might have heard of is the Project Aristotle study from Google. Google invested a lot of time and resources into looking at all their teams, to find out what makes an effective team. The research showed that the number one thing that all high performing teams had in common was psychological safety.
Psychological safety is where a person can be themselves. They know they can talk about themself, they can ask questions and they know they’re not going to be ridiculed or made to feel stupid. It’s a place where team members can put their hand up and suggest things. They can also talk openly about some failures, near misses they may have had; mistakes they’ve made and they will be okay. Things will be accepted and everyone will move forward together.
When we create psychological safety, people are accepted in the workplace and they feel that they can learn and become a real part of the team, and they can contribute. They feel able to ask some really challenging questions when they’re comfortable, which can be fantastic for innovating the business and innovating patient care. This openness is critical in other sectors like aviation, nuclear and gas, rail and medicine. I’m sure that this will be coming down the tracks at some stage for dentistry, too.
Psychological safety is really important for high performing teams. Encouraging people to talk about their culture, their background, their experiences, their mental health is only one part of that. So, in my case, I could talk about being a husband, a dog dad, a brother, a son. I could share that I am a Mental Health First Aid instructor, which is my line of work. But there are other things about me, too. I’m very outdoorsy. I like riding my bicycle. I am a classic Land Rover pilot, so with this information you’re learning a lot more about me, and what tends to happen is when people get to learn more of the intimate details about someone, they draw more connections.
So, I may be able to talk to a colleague about dogs, for example. And even though we mightn’t be very similar people and mightn’t have similar lives, lifestyles, likes and dislikes, we have one area of connection. This is so important, as it’s one of the five ways of wellbeing, which we’ve talked about before for positive mental health. So building that connection, welcoming the differences but finding the things that are similar draws the team together at work.
Rather than just focusing on what the business, the dentist or the practice manager wants us to do, or what we need to do for our patients. We’re connecting on different levels, as well as getting the satisfaction of working together and performing good treatments and having good outcomes for patients. We’re connected on another level.
Brilliant managers enable this to happen and they’re worth their weight in gold. They create psychological safety.
A recent survey from Mental Health First Aid England has shown that three-quarters of managers are concerned about their team’s mental health because of the cost-of-living crisis. And a third of managers feel out of their depth supporting their team with mental health concerns. So, although the majority of managers are worried about their staff and their mental health because of the financial crisis, they’re not all comfortable having this conversation, nor about how to have it and how to look after their people. So, there’s a real disparity there.
My Whole Self Day on 14th of March was one way to enable the connection for people to talk about what’s going on for them, what’s difficult in their life as well as what they enjoy, what keeps them well, what they’re worried about, their hopes and fears.
Brené Brown, has a great book, Dare to Lead, which is a great read for managers. She argues and illustrates that if managers don’t pay attention to their staff’s fears, worries and concerns, as well as their hopes and dreams, they will find that a disproportionate amount of time is wasted in the business on people being unproductive, and mistakes being made. So, it is time well spent and invested. However, investing time and energy into employee wellbeing makes financial sense, too. It can bring a return of up to 11-to-one according to independent reports in 2020 and 2022 by Deloitte.
I have talked about Mental Health First Aid previously but, on its own it is not the solution to all of these things. It is one part of the jigsaw puzzle. But having special days in the calendar like My Whole Self Day on 14 March, links in with all of these things and enables remarkable conversations and builds psychological safety, which is part of the wider wellbeing portfolio that businesses, organisations and practices can offer for everyone who works there.
So, a coordinated approach to wellbeing and positive mental health needs to include all the things we have mentioned above. One thing will not solve everything. Sadly, there’s no silver bullet.
If you’d like to know more about how to help your team with their mental wellbeing, there is a free Manager’s Toolkit on the Mental Health First Aid England website.
About Andy
Andy Elwood is a Mental Health First Aid instructor and an ambassador for Movember.
He creates safety and trust by sharing his own vulnerability and gives a unique ‘behind the scenes’ insight into life and death situations from his 20 years’ experience working in the emergency services as a paramedic on search and rescue helicopters.
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