Without psychological safety, diversity and inclusion will not be effective.
Psychological safety allows comfort to admit mistakes and learn from failure. It builds a better culture of innovation and decision making, where everyone is able to openly share ideas. Building a diverse team and placing them in an environment that is not psychologically safe undermines the recruitment work and stunts the performance of your team.
From academic evidence, we know improving psychological safety will positively impact overall engagement, innovation, team effectiveness, and strategic problem solving.
Psychological safety is not achieved through engagement activities or empowering employees to own their work. Instead, it requires a cultural and environmental shift. Your employees should be confident in how others will react to them sharing a new idea or voicing a challenge. Psychological safety is the crucial element required for inclusion to be realised in your organisation.
Join Raafi-Karim Alidina, who will be speaking on psychological safety, in an upcoming conference session. Using practical examples from organisations like Pixar and Volkswagen, this session will explain how psychological safety is needed in order for your organisation to realise the benefits of diversity and inclusion.
Psychological Safety: Inclusion’s crucial and often forgotten element
The Forum on Workplace Inclusion, 28 March. Register here.
