Speaking Topic:
Psychological Safety:
Setting the Foundation for a Speak Up Culture
Psychological Safety: Best Practices in Creating Environments Where People Feel Belonging, Safety and Can Speak Up
Amy Edmondson defines psychological safety as “A shared understanding by members of a team, that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking”. Why is psychological safety so important for workplaces today?
A culture of psychological safety is one where we:
Deliberately create an inclusive environment where it is safe to belong
Make it safe to contribute by encouraging input for challenging topics
Enable an environment of curiosity and innovation, where it is safe to learn and fail
Work to create a safe speak-up environment, welcoming dissent and different views
A culture of high psychological safety, with accountability, is the foundation for better leadership and engagement. Enterprise improvements in productivity, inclusion and innovation are a natural follow-on from creating and maintaining a safe workplace culture.
Psychological safety starts with a growth mindset, supported by workplace leaders and modelled by enterprise leadership. It’s important to remember that our teams are not starting from neutral, they have been shaped by other workplaces, other leaders and their own upbringing and experiences. Psychological safety needs to be modelled and developed every day – because it shows up in our systems, processes, symbols and behaviours.
If psychological safety is the very DNA of an enterprise, what are the best practices in creating environments where people feel a sense of belonging, feel safe to contribute ideas, learn and fail, and can speak up? How can we develop the leaders of the future to create psychologically safe workplaces?
This plenary session will be co-presented with Naomi Armitage on Wednesday 28 June 2023 at the World Mining Congress. This Keynote was initially presented at AusIMM Mine Safe International Conference, Perth 2022.
More Speaking Topics
The mining sector is undergoing rapid transition in response to climate change and other challenges. Regions and mine sites around the world are facing, preparing for, or going through transitions. Some regions and sites have already done this and it’s key to understand the lessons that have been learned from Just Transitions, especially to ascertain the gaps in knowledge. What are the guidelines to establishing new best practices? Whose voices do we need to include to help shape these guidelines?
First delivered to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe Group of Experts on Coal Mine Methane in 2019, Bobbie Foot’s presentation outlined the need to implement strategies that include diverse perspectives in the end-to-end planning and co-design process that achieve equitable outcomes for women and girls throughout the mine life cycle.
Bobbie Foot is passionate about developing leadership grounded in foundations of psychological safety to prevent harm and improve the wellbeing of people.