As we return to school as leaders, teachers, and students, one of the most important things we have learned from cognitive research in the last twenty years is the importance of psychological safety. Returning to a building or coming to a new place is either exciting or scary. What makes the difference? People do! We do each time we see another person. Remember what you have learned about SCARF?

Do you see me? Do I matter? Doesn’t someone care about me?

Quite honestly you can feel it when you enter a building or room. The way someone welcomes you like they know you or uses your name like you have made their day. I remember Margaret Brady, our receptionist in Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD. She was a model for me for seventeen years. Everyone who entered the building was greeted with such joy, caring and warmth. From my first day in town for an interview in 1978 until the last day I was back in the district for a visit fifteen years or so later……what an impact she had, and I have never forgotten. Her heart was in her work!

The research tells us that when employees feel safe and cared about, people are 50% more productive which then enhances performance and results. That’s great and the most critical thing is the psychological safety that immediately is felt. It permeates culture when we cultivate and nurture the practice of caring. With this in mind, what are the practices important to remember?

1. Be clear on the definition. What are the articulated and shared core values and principles of the organization? Harvard coined the term, “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” Over the year it began to evolve to “freedom to fail,” then to, “fail fast, fail often, and fail forward.” Then popularized as “fail fast, learn faster.”
2. Talk the Talk
   • Set the stage. Leaders genuinely want to hear from people. They honestly welcome ideas and embrace bad news, the crazy ideas, and the tough questions. Conversations are relationships.
   • Perpetually ask good questions. Questions you really don’t know the answer to.
   • Respond in productive ways. You may not always agree, yet we can always appreciate effort, thoughts, and observations.
3. Walk the Walk: John Maxwell says a leader… “shows the way and goes the way.” Building a culture of psychological safety means showing it is OK to be transparent, authentic, and wrong.When everyone returned from COVID, it was scary, and no one knew how to do what had to be done. Mistakes were made every day, but we were committed to pivot and figure it out together.
4. Meet Foundation Needs: Psychological safety comes when other needs are met. It requires person to person connection. Employees must know leaders genuinely want their input and ideas. Change activates areas of the brain, as does danger or pain, but when people feel included, have autonomy, have a voice, and are kept informed, the brain feels a thrill not a threat.

So, with the excitement and fun of new beginnings…remember, it is all about treating everyone as colleagues, collaborators, partners and respecting their truth – in turn they will respect yours back. This TRUST is the foundation of psychological safety. With trust, everything gets easier! Have a wonderful year!

Reference: HR Morning: Renee Cocchi, Psychological Safety in Your Culture. June 2022.