Conferences and symposiums Creating and maintaining psychological safety - a practical workshop
Psychological safety is a prerequisite for effective learning, patient safety, teaming, improvement and to become a learning organization. How can we be more deliberate and effective in creating it? As a leader, whether you are a research group leader, supervisor, teacher, program director, or department head it's our responsibility. In this workshop, we will explore on a hands-on practical level, how to create and maintain psychological safety with real-world scenarios.
This session is a part of KI's Educational Congress 2022
To be able to attend you need to register to the congress. More information of the congress: KI Educational congress 2022.
Moderators
Carl Savage, researcher, LIME, and Teresa Sörö, Educational developer and director of Continuous learning at Unit for Teaching and learning, KI.
Context
Faculty development.
Form
Workshop
Duration
3 hours
Aim and learning outcomes
The aim of this workshop is to explore how participants can create and maintain psychological safety in their own teaching, supervision, and workplace.
After the workshop, participants should be able to:
- Diagnose the level of psychological safety
- Set the stage for learning oriented discussions by creating shared expectations and meaning
- Invite participation in a manner that creates confidence that voice is welcome
- Respond productively to create an orientation toward continuous learning
Target participants
Target participants include student leaders, research group leaders, supervisors, teachers, program directors, or department heads.
About psychological safety
Psychological safety is ”a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes”. It turns out that psychological safety is a prerequisite for effective learning, patient safety, teaming, improvement and to become a learning organization. Establishing psychological safety is the responsibility of leaders, whether you are a research group leader, supervisor, teacher, program director, or department head.
In this workshop, we will explore on a hands-on practical level, how to create and maintain psychological safety by analyzing and experimenting with real-world scenarios.
KI’s recent report on effective and successful research production found a link to work environments characterized by an open, positive, and support climate, where just and compassionate leadership are coupled with reasonable work demands (Jensen m.fl., 2021). In contrast, when it is unclear what the consequences are if one were to express a differing opinion or pose the “wrong” question, doubt can spread. In these work environments, time and energy are spent on our “second job”, i.e. we put in effort to appear competent and knowledgeable, avoid situations or questions that might present us in an unfavorable light, and work to manage our reputation. All of these efforts prevent us from learning and from focusing on what we should actually be doing.
This second job has been called the largest source of waste in organizations today (Kegan & Lahey, 2016). Over time, this focus on ”looking good” will hamper learning and creativity, and dampen the courage to lead or to ask that “wicked question” that will lead to the next breakthrough.
Workshop method
With the origin from the different participants context, the workshop will use the science on psychological safety to together analyse and discuss situations. We will use scenario analyses and role-play (in a supportive environment, of course!).
This workshop has it’s origin in the work of KI's Pedagogical Compass.