126 - The Paradox of Psychological Safety with Gustavo Razzetti

Psychological safety is a bastion of facilitation, collaboration, and connection.

But has it reached a tipping point?

As the phrase permeates more corners of consultancy and the echelons of management, is it depreciating into another buzzword, losing its groundbreaking origins?

Gustavo Razzetti, acclaimed workplace culture consultant, will gladly admit that this is a controversial topic, but there are few better equipped to address it – and that’s what we set out to do in this episode of workshops work.

Join us for a challenging, inspiring, and rewarding discussion about the merits and limits of psychological safety.

Find out about:

●     Why a top-down focus on psychological safety has a fatal flaw

●     How reflection and action at an individual level form true psychological safety

●     Whether personal integrity is a more valuable metric to measure

●     The Catch 22 of psychological safety and the tension between safety and conflict

●     How subcultures influence and make up wider company cultures

●     Healthy, manageable ways to introduce risk and conflict into workplaces

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Questions and Answers

[01:48] Where do you see the paradox when it comes to psychological safety in organisations?

[03:18] What does psychological safety really mean? And what have people taken it to mean?

[09:44] Is it the leader that sets the tone and models psychological safety to their team?

[14:29] Do you think the desire of some leaders to return to the office is rooted in their desire for safety?

[17:19] How can leaders create psychological safety for themselves?

[20:46] Is it a mistake, then, to look to the leader to create psychological safety?

[24:18] How can we feel confident enough to speak up if we don’t feel safe? This is the chicken and egg situation!

[30:03] Would we be better placed discussing integrity? Why is there such a dearth of discussion around integrity in the corporate world?

[34:29] Can we feel psychologically safe if we operate from a position of defensiveness?

[39:44] How important is the art of asking questions and giving feedback? Is it something we can learn?

[42:46] If we need smaller groups to truly create psychological safety, how do we avoid silos?

[47:24] What happens if subcultures don’t trust each other?

[49:38] Is a lack of collaboration among middle management a structural problem or an issue of incentives?

[52:24] If we want middle management to change, would that be a problem for leadership to solve?

[54:10] How, then, would middle managers create an alliance if they all feel in competition with one another?

[56:29] How can we transform silos into subcultures that communicate and collaborate?

[57:32] Do you believe in hybrid?

[01:02:58] Are we experiencing a ‘mass avoidance’ event by focusing so much on the concept of hybrid?

[01:05:16] Would our work become more sustainable in an asynchronous model?

[01:10:21] How do you prioritise and protect id

Any thoughts? Share them with us!

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