Now, more than ever, a lot of us are experiencing toxic work cultures. Employees are demotivated and the passion is gone. When a question was asked about what the biggest predictor of work performance is, it was said that the work environment largely contributes to the performance of employees.
Once the pandemic is over, how different will work be? There are three post-pandemic work trends we need to know.
- In the post-COVID-19 business world, your organization will experience either rapid growth or rapid decline.
- More leaders will realize that psychological safety is not a nice to have but a necessity for survival.
- Career advancement in management will be more focused on your ability to create and cultivate a culture of high psychological safety, less focused on your technical skills.
According to Amy Edmonson, a Harvard Business School professor, psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
When mistakes are made in your team, how does your manager respond? When psychological safety is high, it’s okay to talk about problems and mistakes without fear of being shamed or blamed; creativity and innovation thrive. Psychological safety is low when work cultures become toxic.
How to Develop the Habit of Psychological Safety
- We should step up, speak up, and help managers see their blind spots.
- Organizations should create a platform, where teams can practice new behaviors daily until it becomes a habit.
- Organizations should provide thinking partners to identify barriers and accelerate the transition to the new culture.
Leaders can try asking these questions for two weeks and see what happens.
- Malasakit — How are you feeling today?
- Layunin — What can you do to make today great?
- Tulong — How can I help you?
On psychological safety and lean management, what does combining the two look like? The technical skills of lean management make employees take full responsibility for their work so that improvement happens daily. It is an environment where people do the right thing even when no one is watching. A culture of trust is established. Work From Home!
Psychological safety is an organization’s competitive advantage. Those who embrace this will thrive in the post-pandemic world.
Tips for Fostering Psychological Safety in the Workplace
- Lead by example — upward feedback, acknowledge mistakes, be open to opinions different from your own.
- Encourage active listening.
- Create a safe environment — do not interrupt each other; all ideas are accepted equally and never judged; never place blame.
- Develop an open mindset.
