Psychological Safety and Courage: Two Sides of the Same (Immensely Valuable) Coin

Does psychological safety take away the need for courage? Or does courage take away the need for psychological safety? The answer to both questions is a resounding NO. Both are– and will continue to be needed in a complex and uncertain world.”  –Dr. Amy Edmondson (in her foreword to Courageous Cultures)

If you want real psychological safety on your team, you need people to feel safe and encouraged to speak up and share their concerns and ideas. That’s important.  And not enough. You also need to equip them with the skills and words to do that well.

The question in this week’s “Asking for a Friend” is one we’ve been getting a lot. How do our books Powerful Phrases for Dealing with Workplace Conflict and Courageous Cultures work together? What’s the best way to use them with my team?

Here’s the short answer.

How the Two Books Work Together

In “Courageous Cultures”, you get very practical ways to create psychological safety, to proactively create clarity about where you need remarkable ideas, to invite people in a way that they feel encouraged to share.  Powerful Phrases gives everyone on the team practical ways to have these conversations, even when they feel uncomfortable.

It would be easy to say, well Courageous Cultures is for leaders, for the culture builders (those making it safe) and Powerful Phrases is for everyone else, to help with confidence and competence in speaking up.  That is certainly a useful way to think about this.

And… the truth is what we’ve seen working with teams across a variety of industries all over the world, is hard conversations are hard at every level. When you’ve got tons of responsibility, the stakes are high, and stakeholder relationships are complex, it doesn’t get easier to “say no,” or deal with an angry boss, or a passive-aggressive co-worker.

The 4 Cs (and related habits), G.O.A.T.s, and Powerful Phrases will empower better collaboration and reduce stress no matter what role you are in.

That’s why we’ve invested so much time making it easy for you to read both of these books with your team, and to align on some clear actions and next steps to create better psychological safety and to empower everyone on the team to talk about what matters most.

Team Activities to Encourage Courage and Better Conversations.

A few months ago, we published, How to Read Courageous Cultures with Your Team. We gave you easy access to supplemental resources to read Courageous Cultures together and to create more clarity and curiosity in your team. If you’re looking for practical tools and techniques for your leadership team, that’s a great start.

Today, we want to ensure you have access to the Workplace Conflict and Collaboration Center, which has many activities to not just read Powerful Phrases together, but to have important conversations you need with one another to deal with today’s challenging workplace situations, including our Collaborative Conversations Guide.

If you are looking for team activities to empower EVERYONE at every level of your team to talk about what matters, or to collaborate through the complex conflict cocktails they’re faced with, this guide makes collaboration easier.

We would love to hear from you! Are you reading Courageous Cultures or Powerful Phrases for Dealing With Workplace Conflict with your team? What activities work best to help create psychological safety AND encourage courage by building practical skills?