In this experiential workshop, Lorne guides participants to a new awareness of psychological safety to support a culture where they feel safe sharing their ideas with freedom. We will discuss the literature explaining what psychological safety means, how it improves DE&I, and practices to show managers and employees how to create it.

Google’s research on their highest performing teams uncovered it wasn’t team members’ education, experience, or place of origin that drove their success. Critical success factors were the team members’ levels of communication, empathy, and sense of psychological safety with each other. In today’s fast-paced, high-stress environments, the need to build context so teams can work effectively together has never been more critical.

Clear guidelines for engagement create the foundation for highly effective teams. Boost team efficiency, trust, and alignment with strategies for collectively identifying what is vital to your teammates and building team commitment to using the co-created guidelines for success.

Using stories, dialogue, and appreciative inquiry techniques, you will learn what’s important to other participants and how you could work together in mutually supportive ways if you were part of the same team. You will take away tools that you can use to bring your team to its next level of performance.

Learning Objectives
• Explore what psychological safety means and looks like in the workplace;
• Develop new language and awareness about psychological safety;
• Create a plan to develop psychosocial safety in the workplace; and
• Gain skills to work effectively with coworkers to establish psychological safety in the workplace.

Participants will:
• Create a team charter drawing from the needs of the people in the room;
• Prepare by reading academic and business literature before the workshop;
• Answer several written questions before the workshop to prepare;

Participants learn and experience the meaning of psychological safety and how this concept is a tool to engage employees and drive productivity, innovation, and collaboration.