The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

What is psychological safety?

Psychological safety can be defined in a school setting, work setting, or another type of team setting. When all four stages of psychological safety are met in a social unit, then all team members feel included, learn well, contribute, and are comfortable presenting new ideas. When the four stages aren’t met, then the opposite can happen.

What are the psychological stages that need to be met in order to create a solid team? Continue reading below to find out more!

1. Inclusion Safety: Sense of Belonging

The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety starts with inclusion safety. This is what gives people a sense of belonging. All members feel accepted without fear of embarrassment or rejection.

To give someone inclusion safety, you must make them feel welcomed and comfortable. If someone lacks this type of safety, then they’re not as likely to open up to others and grow, contribute, and innovate.

2. Learner Safety: Question of Growth

Everyone has a need to learn and grow throughout life. Learner safety allows someone to feel safe and comfortable while learning and progressing. If learner safety is present, a person will feel at ease while asking questions, experimenting with new ideas, receiving feedback, and even while making mistakes.

No one should feel embarrassed to ask questions or make mistakes. All of these learning aspects should be normalized for everyone.

3. Contributor Safety: Need for Making a Difference

Every member of the team, whether it be a school classroom or employees of an organization, should feel valued. When a person feels valued, they’re more likely to feel confident in contributing to the team. Someone with contributor safety will be able to take what they learned and then use it to bring some type of contribution to the group.

The leader should encourage everyone to reach their highest potential.

4. Challenger Safety: Need for Improvement

Everyone needs to be challenged. Without a challenge, tasks can become boring and unfulfilling. All team members should feel encouraged to challenge current ways of doing things.

There’s always room for improvement, and everyone should feel welcomed to ask questions such as, “what if we try it this way?” How can team members use what they’ve learned to then challenge things, make changes, and improve?

There might be a better way of doing things, or maybe this person wants to try new challenges that are more difficult in order to put their skills to the test. They shouldn’t feel nervous or scared to do so.

How Can You Ensure Psychological Safety?

Is psychological safety currently happening within your team? If all team members don’t feel like they belong and don’t feel safe in their environment to learn, grow, contribute, and challenge the current way of doing things, then psychological safety might be lacking.

Use the information given in the guide above to help you determine where your team’s lacking in the four stages and where you can make improvements.

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