VIDEO: The 4 phases of Psychological Security

Because you want to get the very-very best out of your team, deliver top performance and, above all, always want to keep innovating. However? Therefore, you obviously know the importance of trust within your team. But how do you build that trust? In our April theme month, we explore that question in detail. A question that has everything to do with the concept of psychological safety. In this article, we dive deeper into the underlying construct and the four phases of psychological safety. Will you dive in? Or get started right here with our online tool to measure psychological safety in your team.

Innovation is and always will be a group effort. Of course, that romantic image of the lone genius incredibly captures the imagination. But is unfortunately not very realistic. Or is fortunately not very realistic. Because how valuable is it to join forces within the team to come up with the very best ideas? For that, however, a solid foundation of trust is essential. But how do you facilitate that trust or psychological safety? Author, researcher and consultant Dr. Timothy Clark answers that question in his book “The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety” and explains very clearly why you really need all four stages to achieve breakthrough innovation.

“Psychological Safety is a condition in which you feel (1) included, (2) safe to learn, (3) safe to contribute, and (4) safe to challenge the status quo – all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way” – Timothy Clark

The four phases

The four stages of psychological safety, as described by Timothy Clark, thus relate to safe space for:

Being accepted
May learn
May contribute
May challenge

Being accepted

The first stage. The first step. The first step in the above outline. It all starts with inclusion. To actually be included and accepted in the team, it’s the first step to feel trust. In other words, to feel (psychologically) safe. Because as a new team member, you really want to be part of the social collective and feel the shared identity. So let’s emphasize that acceptance (inclusion) is about being genuinely welcomed by the group. Not just tolerated.

May learn

Time for the next step; creating safety and space to learn (from each other). Because when there is room to learn within a team, team members will also dare to ask each other questions. You can continue to ask (critical) questions, experiment, try out and test. You even feel the space to make instructive mistakes. This does require an active attitude from you and your team members. By the way, in this phase you have few responsibilities and limitations, for that we look to the next phase.

May contribute

In this phase you put your knowledge and skill into practice in the best possible way. Together with your team members, you create the optimal safe atmosphere for this. In this way you can show that you are competent, that you understand your profession and that you can progress independently. This immediately increases your responsibility and thus your freedom. If all goes well in this phase, it sometimes becomes visible through a promotion, for example. It shows that your team members trust you to do your job well.

May challenge

There we are. The final stage. The final step to build trust. To increase psychological safety in the team. This is the phase where “the magic happens. Why? Because you feel the confidence to disagree, to challenge the status quo and to pitch new ideas. You are not held back by fear of possible rejection or rebuke. No, you feel freedom! This fourth stage allows for creative and divergent opinions within the team. Opinions that are oh-so-necessary for those breakthrough innovations.

“Challenger safety is the license to innovate” – Timothy Clark

Only when you and the team reach this vibrational Stage 4 will you arrive at the most unexpected revolutionary ideas. Only in this energetic phase 4 will you move beyond incremental and evolutionary improvements. In this fruitful phase 4, you will come up with those desired breakthrough innovations. So building trust and working on psychological safety really pays off!

What stage is your team in?

Bright, a mountain of clear theory and information. But let’s apply it to your team. Where do you stand on trust and psychological safety? On which step of the ladder are you standing? I have developed an online tool to measure and visualize the psychological safety of your team. It works simply and safely; team members fill out a questionnaire completely anonymously. The results then tell you how the team rates psychological safety and give you guidelines to start improving. I would say go ahead and use it, it’s free too.

I have developed an online tool to measure the psychological safety of your team. Team members can fill out a questionnaire completely anonymously. The results tell you how team members rate psychological safety in the team and give you guidelines to improve it. Try it out, it’s free!