25/09/2022
Article about the importance of psychological safety in innovation work, related to the internationally conducted qualitative research results of Epic Project, in the Portuguese HealthNews Journal 🙂
In the framework of a Research&Innovation project financed by the EU, EPIC Partnership conducted joint qualitative research in 2020/21. We interviewed HR professionals and innovation managers about their work-health-related problems. The in-depth interviews revealed common patterns, which not only dropped back the performance and the innovation capacity, but also undermined psychological wellbeing.
As revealed, a healthy workplace atmosphere, work-life balance, and employee´s long-term
bio-psycho-mental wellbeing roots, among others, in guaranteeing psychological safety at the organizational level. In the case of an innovation-intensive environment, this is even more important, since innovation workers have to deal with a high amount of uncertainty, elevated risks, constant changes, and stress. It requires complex, multilevel cooperation, and co-creation. In such an environment it´s essential that employees/stakeholders feel safe enough to have open communication, reveal doubts, ask questions, give frank critics, question decisions, make mistakes and admit failures, when necessary.
This might sound evident, but according to the above-mentioned research, only a few companies manage to find a way to ensure it. Either by systematic planning and follow-up or by orientation to an organic, constant development planted into the organization's culture.
Psychological safety has an important impact both on individuals and on organizations. It affects communication efficiency, information flow, workplace atmosphere, fluctuation, collaboration quality, and indirectly, also on productivity, loyalty, fluctuation, and innovation capacity. In terms of mental health, it can be considered one of the most important guardians at the door of anxiety, burnout, and other health issues, at the organizational level.
Open and assertive communication is a primal key to psychological safety, but how can one communicate well with the external world, without being aware of what is going on inside? Too many conflicts reach back here.
So far we have been speaking about the healthy work environment in the innovation context, but honestly, in the midst of a transition to the digital era, the demand for constant adaptation, agile change management, and the management of accelerated work-life rhythm, is affecting each of us. The digital transition, with all its growth potential and positive impacts, has brought new problems too.
Organizations and individuals have to deal with new challenges, let us mention as examples, boundary management in distance working (isolating the work life from the private life), constant information overload and “mental noise/fragmented attention”, big scale social comparison and compliance expectations induced by the social media. In order to counterbalance, mindfulness and integrity are needed more than ever, as well as reconnection with oneself and others in an organic, authentic, responsible, and conscious way.
As Carl Rogers wrote, “...Good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It means launching oneself fully into the stream of life.” (Rogers, 1961, On becoming a person)
In this view, EPIC project offers practical support and free tools for organizations to understand more about psychological safety, open communication, innovative thinking, mindfulness, and supportive management, among other topics. The consortium developed a Guidebook with theory, best practices, an Exercise Collection, and a Digital Self-Assessment tool, as well as an interactive card game (Innovation Wizard), enhancing open communication, team cohesion, psychological safety, and innovative thinking at the organizational level.
All materials are available in digital form, free of charge, in 6 languages (PT, EN, GR, HU,
SK, RO). For more information and access visit the project´s website https://epic-project.net
No âmbito do projeto de Investigação & Inovação EPIC financiado pela União Europeia, em 2020 foi levado a cabo um abrangente estudo qualitativo por uma parceria de sete empresas europeias. Com este propósito, foram recolhidas diversas entrevistas a profissionais de RH e a gestores que partici...
