10 tips on creating psychological safety: advice to project leaders from the Ministry of Defence

Psychological safety is the idea that we can be candid and raise issues without fear of reprisal, explains a recent report, Psychological Safety in MOD Major Projects, by the UK’s Ministry of Defence (MOD). Without it, people will struggle to feel empowered to experiment, innovate, learn from failure or even challenge established or outdated ways of working.

The report is drawn from a major study of projects and professionals within the MOD, comprising more than 240 surveys and 23 interviews with senior responsible officers and programme directors, and gives practical advice on how any project leader can encourage psychological safety in major projects. Here are 10 tips drawn from its findings:

1. You should initiate engagements with your team to discuss progress. Proactively create the environment where individuals have the opportunity and feel comfortable to raise issues and concerns.
2. You should be available to the team. Ensure your team knows that you are open for consultation when needed by them.
3. You should also provide an ongoing presence. Provide a constant route for conversation and escalation.
4. Clearly present the hierarchy of goals for your team. Clarify how the strategic direction of the organisation connects with the work that the team is undertaking and how their objectives contribute to the delivery of the project.
5. Invest in the objective setting process. Ensure that the goals the team is working towards are both clear and easy to understand and appropriate to their capability.
6. Regularly reaffirm team direction. Frequent discussion on this inspires a sense of purpose and stability, and places a renewed focus on the ‘art of the possible’.
7. Proactively establish positive working relationships with contributing teams and organisations. Project leaders should seek out opportunities to build relationships between teams through establishing an environment of trust and respect, and shared values that unite individuals across boundaries.
8. Reaffirm the role and importance of the project in delivering the broader capability. Mobilise your teams to see how their work helps to build the big picture. This challenge is compounded by post-pandemic ways of working; however, there is significant value in bringing your teams together to demonstrate what is being achieved through their collective efforts.
9. Enable your teams to achieve their goals. Empower them with the authority, resources and skills they need to make decisions.
10. Celebrate the successes. Take the time to widely communicate and celebrate the achievement of benefits, or milestones towards these, no matter how busy the team is or the proximity of the next milestone. Individual contributions towards benefit delivery should be recognised and rewarded.

Find the full report here

THIS ARTICLE IS BROUGHT TO YOU FROM THE WINTER 2022 ISSUE OF PROJECT JOURNAL, WHICH IS FREE FOR APM MEMBERS.