How DiSC® Builds Psychological Safety on Teams
Research has shown that organizations can create psychological safety in the workplace using behavioral assessments to drive innovation, performance, and resilience.
In this article, we will focus on how organizations can leverage the behavioral / personality assessment called Everything DiSC®. We will review why psychological safety is crucial for organizations to gain a competitive advantage and how they can leverage DiSC to build it.
Don’t want to read the article? We’ve created a video that details this research that you can watch below:
What is Psychological Safety?
The term Psychological Safety is used often today, but what is it?
Amy Edmondson, the author of the book The Fearless Organization, defines psychological safety as feeling safe to take interpersonal risks.
Edmondson has spent most of her career studying the effects of psychological safety and she defines the term in the workplace as meaning you feel safe to speak up and question a supervisor or co-worker if you feel they made a poor decision.
It does not mean your ideas can’t be challenged.
Feel safe to take interpersonal risks
Place where ideas cannot be challenged
So why does psychological safety matter from a business perspective?
Compared to 20 years ago, workers spend 50% more time working collaboratively. Additionally, most innovation happens in teams.
This means we need a foundation of trust to do our best work.
If we are afraid our team might be dismissive or critical of our ideas, we will often remain silent, which kills innovation.
What happens when Companies Aren’t Psychologically Safe
Edmonson’s definition is helpful, but it doesn’t describe what benefits psychological safety gives an organization.
To answer this question, it might be more useful to look at two examples of what happens when there is little or no psychological safety.
The first example is Wells Fargo, where upper management set incredibly ambitious sales goals and monitored their workers’ progress intensely.
The second example is Volkswagen, which pressured workers to reach an unattainable standard for a clean diesel vehicle.
You might remember how this turned out, but here’s a recap:
- At both of these organizations, workers did not feel they could speak up and question management’s decisions.
- And at both of these organizations, workers committed fraud to meet these goals.
Volkswagen
Volkswagen pressured workers to achieve unattainable standard for clean diesel.
Wells Fargo
Employees opened new banking accounts for customers without their knowledge to reach very ambitious sales goals.
Wells Fargo workers opened accounts and sold products to customers without their knowledge, and Volkswagen workers created a device that tricked emissions tests by making their diesel vehicles appear to emit less CO2 than they did.
Both companies flew under the radar for some time, eventually, however, these actions led to scandals, fines, lawsuits, and a major hit to both the reputations and the bottom line of both organizations.
How many ideas are never shared in workplaces where psychological safety is low? If we are afraid our team might be dismissive or critical of our ideas, we will often remain silent, which kills innovation.
Research has uncovered lots of benefits to psychological safety.
These include increases in employee engagement, innovation, knowledge sharing, performance, and in healthcare settings, patient safety.
Unfortunately, according to Gallup, only 3 in 10 workers believe their opinions matter.
Gallup says that if we double that number to just 6 in 10, we would see significant reductions in safety incidents and turnover and a 12% increase in productivity.
Increasing psychological safety in the workplace can help to close this gap.
How DiSC® Builds Psychological Safety
The goal of psychological safety is for workers to feel safe to take interpersonal risks, and DISC is one tool organizations can use to increase the feeling of safety, giving workers a neutral language to discuss behavior and helping to create a culture of understanding and open dialogue.
Charles Duhigg studied the powerful effects of psychological safety on Google’s teams, and he says if a company wants to outstrip its competitors, it needs to influence not only how people work, but how they work together.
One way to help people work together better is to use a behavioral assessment like DiSC to create a better culture where speaking up is encouraged and as a result, innovation thrives.
DiSC theory posits that we are all a blend of four main behavioral styles referred to as D, I, S, and C, but we have one dominant behavioral style.
D-Style Individuals are direct and firm.
I-Style individuals are outgoing and enthusiastic.
C-Style Individuals are analytical and reserved.
S-Style individuals are even-tempered and accommodating.
So how can DISC help create psychological safety?
Let’s look at how the goals of both DISC and psychological safety align.
The goal of psychological safety is to build systems and structures to ensure a safe environment for open dialogue.
DISC can provide that structure by giving workers a model to better understand themselves and their coworkers.
Here are two ways DISC can support this process:
- Increasing self-awareness of managers
- Promoting openness and trust in teams
Managers and the team
When managers don’t recognize the motivational and behavioral needs of their direct reports, confusion and frustration can build.
As an example, if a manager plans to kick off a new project and wants to empower the team to take charge they should understand the different needs of their employees.
Those with the S-Style will likely want a little guidance on what should take place which is different from the D-Style individual who will want to work on their own and get started immediately.
If the manager expects their employees to all work in the same way, they won’t provide the necessary communication to get the project off the ground successfully.
Everything DiSC Worksmart was designed to help managers leverage the insights of DiSC within key management practices:
- Giving constructive feedback
- Managing Conflict
- Empowering the team
- Helping the team navigate change
- Motivating the team
Promoting openness and trust in teams
Patrick Lencioni’s NYTimes bestselling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, lists the absence of vulnerability-based trust as the first and greatest dysfunction that plagues teams.
We couldn’t agree more. When teams lack trust they will engage in destructive behaviors.
Everything DiSC on Catalyst provides teams with a tool and a language to talk about interpersonal issues in a non-judgmental way. The platform provides learners with an easy way to learn about their DiSC Style and how their style shows up on their teams.
When Catalyst is introduced during a live workshop, teams will have a chance to not only learn about DiSC but also have a space to practice what they learn.
Need help implementing DiSC® in your organization?
We have offered DiSC assessments since 1986! Over the years, we have helped thousands of organizations utilize this tool effectively to improve in areas like psychological safety. Fill out the form below if you would like to learn more about how we can work with your organization.