Debunking Safety Myths in Healthcare: Fostering Psychological Safety and Team Dynamics (#006)
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[00:00:00] Welcome to Safe Space Made Simple, a practical podcast that guides clinical leaders and healthcare managers to create trust and support with their teams. I'm your host, Trace Hobson. Join me for weekly interviews, practical tools, and inspiring transformational stories of bringing people together in healthcare.
[00:00:24] Now, let's dive in. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Safe Space Made Simple podcast, the podcast that's designed for clinical leaders, health care managers, and teams to create a safe space. My name is Trace Hobson. I'm your host. And today we're going to talk about three misconceptions that I noticed about health and safety programs that happen inside of organizations.
[00:00:46] Now, one of the questions that I grapple with a lot is, is it possible To create safety or have physical safety when people don't feel safe. Now, obviously [00:01:00] if you're on this podcast listening and you've listened for any length of time, you know what my position is on that. So I'm, I'm a bit biased. I don't think it is possible, but we oftentimes in organizations act like we can do that.
[00:01:14] And so, you know, one way to see this is something that I've seen in health and safety programs that At the executive level, at middle management level, and even on the, the ground level. And that is that people talk about safety all the time, but often they don't even feel safe enough to say what they're really thinking or to share their perspective and ideas because they're afraid it's divergent from what the manager might be saying or what other people might say.
[00:01:44] And so we've got to actually look at that for a moment and just notice. Is it possible then to actually be at the top of our game around health and safety without actually feeling safe? And I don't think it is. I have been in too [00:02:00] many meetings to count where people were asked for their opinion. Nobody said anything.
[00:02:06] And then after the meeting at the water cooler or over coffee, people whispering and confiding in each other about what they really thought. And so this idea of psychological health and safety, and even further now that I've, I've started to learn as. More, even more important, which is neurobiological safety.
[00:02:25] Does our nervous system, is it regulated and is our psychological health and safety practice in place along with that so that we can literally create a safe space for, for workplaces, for families and for the big programs we're trying to accomplish every single day in healthcare. In today's episode, we're going to explore a few misconceptions about health and safety.
[00:02:49] And also I'm going to give you a couple of tips about what you can do inside of this problem or this challenge so that you can generate a safe space for yourself. Now let's move to the [00:03:00] show. If you're here watching this video, it's probably because in your roles in your life or in your work, You're responsible for creating safety.
[00:03:09] You also probably take that fairly seriously. Otherwise you wouldn't be taking the time to watch this video. And if you're like me, you probably believe that now more than ever, safety in our lives has become top of mind. Creating a safe space is the foundation for us to have lives and work that is meaningful and that thrives.
[00:03:30] In the last 25 years, in the experiences that I've had in my career and in my life, I've noticed that there are three misconceptions or myths that come to the forefront for health and safety, as well as psychological health and safety in the workplace. The first myth that I've noticed over and over again in very large organizations and even in a family setting, is the idea that if we have physical safety, if we have outside safety, in other words, all of the externals are taken [00:04:00] care of and the environment is safe, that then people will automatically feel safe from the inside.
[00:04:06] Well, in my experience, that's actually not true at all. Now I believe that this is the reason why Even in the highest caliber safety programs that we have today in the world, we still have environments where people don't feel safe enough to show up, be who they are, say what they want to say, and actually bring information to the forefront.
[00:04:27] I believe that the best and most effective physical health and safety programs are based on a foundation of psychological health and safety that is practically applied on an individual level In teams, as well as in whole departments. Another huge misconception or myth that I've noticed in my career is this idea That if we have physical safety and strong compliance, risk management, as well as measures in place to control what's going on for physical health and safety, that then we're going to feel [00:05:00] safe enough to have innovation, collaboration, and teamwork that will take us to the next level as an organization, a team, or a business.
[00:05:08] What I've noticed in the last 25 years is the opposite actually happens. When you put physical safety on the forefront of your program and you use that as a lead for creating productivity, engagement, and innovation in your business, what you're going to find is that people will begin to play it safe.
[00:05:28] The reason why this happens is because psychological health and safety is very easy to overlook. It's sort of an afterthought when we look at our physical health and safety programs. But when we do this, people end up not feeling safe in a psychological way. And so when that happens, the tendency for human beings is to actually default.
[00:05:50] to playing it safe. In that kind of an environment, people will not take risks. They won't say what they want to say. They won't come to the forefront with their ideas [00:06:00] because they won't know how they're going to be received. I believe that when you learn how to create a safe space and coach your people and train them in psychological health and safety and give them practical tools so that they can create that for themselves as well as the people that they work with that your productivity and your team performance skyrockets.
[00:06:20] This has also been proven out in study after study all over the world. The feeling of psychological safety is captured really well by the work of Amy Edmondson, who created a survey that measures whether or not people feel safe at work. Her work was even cited in the groundbreaking two year study that Google conducted called Project Aristotle, where they looked for the magic ingredient in their teams that would correlate with high performance.
[00:06:45] They discovered that the number one factor for high performance, teamwork, and bringing out the best in people was whether or not they felt psychologically safe. Now, the third misconception or myth that I've noticed over and over again is [00:07:00] that you can have physical safety, you can have psychological health and safety, and you can have all of those things.
[00:07:06] without being present. You see, all of the industries that I've ever worked in have been incredibly busy, stressful, and sometimes reactive environments. In these kinds of environments, when you talk about health and safety, or you talk about psychological health and safety, typically speaking, you're doing it in a hurry.
[00:07:26] And you're trying to actually bring the program along with you. As you're also in operations and trying to get things done as well. Now if you think about it, it's really understandable why all of us have worked this way at different times in our lives. We have to get things done. And if we feel pressure in one way or another to get those targets or to accomplish those tasks.
[00:07:49] We actually start to move faster and work harder without always noticing that the safety that we're wanting to create is starting to get left by [00:08:00] the wayside. I believe that we can have the best of both worlds. And in fact, in my experience, when you learn how to actually practice presence and be present with the people that you're working with or that you're living with, All of the practical tools and things you need to get done start to get done in a brand new way.
[00:08:20] Three things that you can do right now that are going to seem so simple that you might overlook them are to actually slow down when you want to speed up. Taking a deep breath and stepping back from what it is that is in front of you so that you can take another perspective is so important to begin to nurture.
[00:08:40] psychological health and safety inside of yourself. So when you slow down and you take that deep breath, you start to notice something different. Now, if you're like me and the people that I work with, you might find that slowing down feels like an impossibility sometimes. And that's exactly why we need to do it more [00:09:00] than ever.
[00:09:01] When we slow down in the way that I'm describing, and you develop tools and skills to coach yourself and the people around you, you can start to actually go to the next part that I'm going to share, which is Listening. When you listen on that level within yourself and to other people and to the circumstances that you're, you know, that you're trying to navigate, you start to get access to a new depth of information that wasn't there before.
[00:09:30] It's incredible what happens as you slow down and listen in this new way because. You start to discover solutions that you would never otherwise have seen if you didn't do that. And then that leads into the third step, which is to take an action step that's based on those first two steps. That isn't based on reaction or fear or just trying to get something done, but is actually based on slowing down, listening, [00:10:00] And then taking an action step.
[00:10:02] When you work in this way and then you develop a practice and a coaching skill for you and the people around you to work this way, you start to notice this is an iterative approach. It is a practice. It's not about perfection. It's about progress. So when you notice this, you start to notice that there's a byproduct that will show up for you and for the people around you.
[00:10:24] And that is psychological health and safety. And then all of the things that we are trying to create like innovation and productivity and engagement. Start to happen as a natural byproduct, which is so much lighter and easier than trying to make it happen. Now, thank you again for getting to the end of this podcast, and if you enjoyed this and you found that there was value in it for you, my invitation is for you to subscribe for future episodes that come out weekly on Tuesdays.
[00:10:57] Thank you again, and I'm looking forward to being with you next time. [00:11:00] Remember to be a safe space.
