How the act of walking alongside can build psychological safety

How the act of walking alongside can build psychological safety

Being a Process Consultant is all about walking alongside a leader as they journey through a designed transformational process.

Even though this designed transformational process is co-created with the Client, it can take your Client into uncharted territory in their leadership. I highlight these words in gold very intentionally because we can often forget that just because someone is wanting to go into uncharted leadership territory, they may not be actually willing to do what is necessary in order to transform. Which at the end of the day, is entirely their decision.

This is where building psychological safety can come in to play and be very helpful to a Client. As you know, I’m not a psychologist but I know when I’m in an environment where I am safe to make a mistake or error in judgement. I’d imagine you do as well. Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as the belief that the work environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking.[1]

In her book The Fearless Organization, Amy Edmondson shares her research into how psychologically safe environments encourage learning, innovation, and growth. It is an extraordinary book and highly recommend it.

When we are able to acknowledge the errors we have made within teams, groups, or even just ourselves, we have the opportunity to talk freely about them. In doing so, we are able to see these errors in a different light. Instead of seeing them as something that shouldn’t happen, we see errors as a natural part of improvement, growth, and innovation. Errors are a part of the learning process, something to embrace rather than hide and shield from others.

In fact, in our shielding of the error or mistake, we are limiting the learning of others…as well as ourselves. Easy words to write, hard to live out and practice.

One of the hardest fundamentals of being a Process Consultant (our language for the posture and skill set in helping others) is being a non-anxious presence when you are with a Client. When we walk alongside a Client in a non-anxious way, we communicate to Clients that mistakes and errors are OK and not to be feared. Fear has a crippling effect on curiosity, creativity, and innovation. As a human and organizational development professional, a Process Consultant is aware of the importance of phycological safety and its counterintuitive nature and impact on the human psyche.

Late last month I was working with a Client on an important document she was writing and soon to present to her board of trustees. She was anxious for what she was wanting to share because it pointed to long-term and unsatisfactory responses by the organization’s governance system to holding leaders accountable for their behavior. Hard stuff to talk about openly and candidly.

As our conversation continued, I was curious about the larger learning arc of the organization’s governance system (which I was ignorant to) and what she was willing to share about what she was learning.

She and I had created a psychologically safe relational environment, but I didn’t want to assume that she had that same environment with her board. As our conversation continued clarity emerged for her and what she was willing to share and with whom.

A step for her and a potential step for the organization. Building a psychologically safe environments within an organization, board, team, or group takes time and constant attention by leaders.

As we enter this festive and holiday season, what fearless gift do you want to give your organization, board, or leadership team? How might this opportunity create something new to emerge in 2025 for your leadership and the future of your organization?

Walking alongside you,

Lon Swartzentruber

CEO & Managing Partner
Design Group International

[1] The Fearless Organization, Amy C. Edmondson, page 9, 2019, Wiley.

Here is what is in my backpack:

The Fearless Organization, by Amy C. Edmondson

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman

Rereading Humble Leadership 2^nd Edition, by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein

ut yourself in an immersive environment. Visit an aquarium where you can be surrounded by fish.