Is your Workplace Psychologically Safe?

Here’s a psychological safety taxonomy you can use to answer that question.

I developed this typological framework to help organisations identify and address unsafe behaviour patterns and increase psychological safety. It has brought relief and growth to hundreds of organisations and thousands of teams.

The three tiers of psychological safety practice.

1. Manner

2. Method

3. Matter

Are you seeing these patterns regularly in your workplace? If they are repeated and targeted it is imperative to address them.

Manner—The behaviours practised

 Ten examples of unsafe manner patterns:

1. Comments made with a condescending tone of voice

2. Sarcastic statements

3. Regular interruptions in conversation

4. Emails that don’t start with a greeting or salutation or finish a courteous close

5. Silent treatment: Not acknowledging the comments of another team member (either verbally or non-verbally)

6. Withholding verbal or non-verbal responses to greetings (eg ignoring  or mumbling a reply to a ‘good morning’)

7. Answers or comments made with a condescending tone of voice

8. Terse or abrupt answers or contributions to conversations

9. Low verbal and non-verbal signals of encouragement such as smiles and nods, appreciative or approving facial expressions, tones of voice that convey encouragement and interest in another’s comments

10. Eye-rolling or looking at others to foster dissent when someone is speaking

Method—the actions taken

Ten examples of unsafe method patterns:

1. Talking behind others’ backs (talking repeatedly about someone rather than to them if you have an issue with them)

2. Making common or frequent negative responses to suggestions made

3. Copying others on emails when raising criticisms, concerns about someone’s actions, or other sensitive matters

4. Micro-management—consistently overseeing the tasks of others that are within their role and responsibility (while not being asked or raising any performance concerns)

5. Consistently ignoring messages and emails

6. Excluding the same people from chats or threads when they are part of the relevant team or group

7. Paying interest and attention to one or some team members’ inputs while ignoring other/s or selectively providing information, updates or tasks only to certain team members (while not addressing any potential performance concerns)

8. Avoiding team members when there are performance concerns rather than having the feedback conversation

9. Invading someone’s personal space or making unwelcome physical touch/contact or sexual advance

10. Physical aggression such as pushing, shoving, punching or use of physical force

    Matter—The issues raised

Ten examples of unsafe matter patterns:

1. Problem-finding—bringing forward business problems to discuss but rarely or never having a discussion or response to solutions or actions taken

2. Continually making a series of performance complaints that, once addressed, are not acknowledged but followed with series of further complaints

3. Micro matter focus—focusing only on the team’s/others’ tasks or activities without discussion of the big picture

4. Discussion of decisions, views or outcomes only; never questions or possibilities.

5. Direct criticisms made using confrontational language such as, ‘Let me be clear, this is your fault;’ You are out of your depth.’

6. Name-calling, making insulting comments, or making inappropriate and unwelcome comments of personal or sexual nature

7. Consistently raising an aspect of someone’s identify such as their sex, gender, religious or personal beliefs, cultural background, political or social beliefs, or personal choices

8. Raising only negatives, never positives, celebrations or successes

9. Regularly raising challenging social topics that fall outside the sphere of work such as politics, religion, controversial or sensitive cultural or community issues

10. Asserting one’s perspective on an issue as the only perceived allowed view, for eg ‘Only an idiot would think X’, ‘Surely no-one actually buys that’, ‘You don’t believe that do you?’ ‘Naturally I voted for X’.

To increase psychological safety, triage these patterns in this order of priority:

1. Manner

2. Method

3. Matter

Respectfully, kindly, professionally address the problem Manner patterns. This is your baseline necessary requirement for conversation about Method and Matter issues—and to address any underlying factors behind these patterns that you have the opportunity or responsibility to address.

Treating staff and colleagues—across all levels of the organisation—civilly, with dignity and respect is a fundamental professional duty. A leader’s is to ensure that they and als staff practise that duty, and to provide the conditions and support that foster safe behaviour at work.