Particularly in this time of significant change in the working environment, creating an environment of trust is crucial to our ability not only to perform at our best, but to our ability to be vulnerable and authentic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WATCH<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretty much everything Simon Sinek says is brilliant, and his TED Talk on\u00a0Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe<\/a>\u00a0spells out exactly why we need psychological safety at work. Firstly, he points out that as social animals, \u201cwe lived together and worked together\u00a0in what I call a circle of safety, inside the tribe,\u00a0where we felt like we belonged.\u00a0And when we felt safe amongst our own,\u00a0the natural reaction was trust and cooperation<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 LISTEN<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The concept of trust is built into our DNA. Distrust is actually a learned response. Which means that creating and ensuring psychological safety is actually closer to our default than the opposite. Good news! READ<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to neuroscientist Evan Gordon, the \u2018fundamental organizing principle of the brain\u2019 is \u201cthe risk and reward response. Five times a second, at an unconscious level, your brain is scanning the environment around you and asking itself: Is it safe here? Or is it dangerous?<\/em>\u201d (The Coaching Habit<\/u><\/a>, by Michael Bungay Stanier). And in a hybrid working environment<\/a>, where we are often sharing a psychological environment but not a physical one, there are also some key steps to take, as advised here by the Harvard Business Review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHAT I’M READING<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m quite deep into a heavy text on neuroplasticity and coaching at the moment so to balance that out I\u2019ve been reading a series by a Toronto-based author, Robert Rotenberg. The books are set in Toronto, and there is a lot of reference to Toronto landmarks, caf\u00e9s, residential neighbourhoods etc. which I love. It\u2019s a small trip down hometown memory lane for me, and the stories are quite good as well! I\u2019m currently reading\u00a0The Guilty Plea<\/a>\u00a0and enjoying the story as well as all the Toronto nostalgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n WHAT I’M LISTENING TO<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the topics I am absolutely passionate about is having a voice. As a woman, and as an immigrant, this can often be an issue. While I truly love living in Germany, I am not a German citizen\u00a0and that means I cannot vote. [Germany up to now has not allowed\u00a0dual citizenship<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 with the new government, this may change, something I am very excited about!!] As a parent, I would like to have a voice to influence the lives of my children, particularly when it comes to education, but that is a conversation to be had when we\u2019ve got a bit more time, and perhaps a glass of wine!\u00a0\ud83d\ude09 A huge thank you to everyone who responded with such enthusiasm to my\u00a0Get Clear on Your Year<\/a>\u00a0coaching offer!! As of writing this, 8 of the 10 slots have been booked. If you want to join them, you can also get in touch via my contact page<\/a>! It is so wonderful to see so much hope for 2022 and it\u2019s exciting to have the opportunity to help make next year a fantastic one!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wishing you a wonderful start to December!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hugs,<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello Friends! Have you ever wondered where buzzwords come from??\u00a0I certainly have. One minute you\u2019ve never heard a term, and the next, it is *everywhere*. Do people get together and agree on a schedule for releasing new terminology?\u00a0\ud83d\ude04\u00a0 How does this happen?\u00a0 About a year ago, I came across the term \u201cpsychological safety\u201d for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[82,77,63,70,196,68,67],"class_list":["post-2366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coaching","tag-communication","tag-executive-coach","tag-leadership","tag-psychological-safety","tag-you4-0","tag-you4point0"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2369,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2366\/revisions\/2369"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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But of course \u201cthe problem with concepts of trust and cooperation\u00a0is that they are feelings, they are not instructions.\u00a0I can’t simply say to you, “Trust me,” and you will.\u00a0I can’t simply instruct two people to cooperate, and they will.\u00a0It’s not how it works. It’s a feeling<\/em>.\u201d And it can be difficult to translate a feeling into an identifiable, tangible, quantifiable behaviour.\u00a0
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Identifying\u00a0who<\/strong>\u00a0is in your tribe<\/a>\u00a0is also a key component to your psychological safety. We evolved to be part of a larger social group of around 150 people. In the modern era, our social network can be 10x, 50x, 100x that. And we are not built to accommodate that many opinions or that much input. So a very important part of our psychological safety is in our own hands: choosing whose opinions matter to you, and who you will allow to actively \u2013 and passively! \u2013 influence and impact you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Malcolm Gladwell\u2019s book\u00a0Talking to Strangers<\/a>\u00a0is a brilliant look into our psyche around the topic of trust, and discusses fascinating examples of learned distrust (a form of unconscious bias). The audiobook is brilliant, as the interviews Gladwell did are part of the audiobook and although he as the author narrates, there are many others adding their own voices and personal stories.\u00a0
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Did you know that in the UK, they are about to have legislation come in that means that employers are actually going to be held responsible for the\u00a0psychological and emotional safety<\/a>\u00a0at work of their employees? I\u2019m not sure how that will be implemented, nor how it can be tracked, but I do think it\u2019s a sign that emotional safety is a topic that has gained enormous (and deserved!) traction. Mental health gets a lot of press, but not necessarily a lot of genuine application in the working world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Five times a second!!! We really aren\u2019t built for uncertainty, or for longer-term danger. From an evolutionary perspective, we are made for \u201cwill that tiger eat me?\u201d moments: they happen quickly, or they don\u2019t. And that is what makes it imperative that we create a safe environment \u2013 the stress caused by uncertainty can be long-term and debilitating.
So how do we create<\/strong> psychological safety?? I\u2019m all for practical applications of behaviours!
Dr. Edmondson (mentioned above) has some really helpful mini scripts<\/a> for creating an environment of psychological safety at work on her LinkedIn profile. Well worth a look!
I also loved this visual and article on 6 questions to help increase the psychological safety<\/a> of your team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The theme of having a voice is a strong thread through psychological safety, and part of having a voice is making sure that you are well-informed. My friend, Leigh McGowan (who I\u2019ve known since childhood) has been doing a brilliant series on American politics on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and recently was featured on\u00a0MSNBC<\/a>! She has started her own podcast \u2013\u00a0The Politics Girl Podcast<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 and if you are interested at all in American politics, or even just enjoy a well-researched and dynamic podcast, this is a great listen!<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"signature\"](\"https:\/\/jnhcoaching.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Julia.Signature.png\")
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