We all want to create environments at work where people feel safe, respected, included, and ‘seen’ – however that looks to each of us. Inspired by conversations during a recent training session facilitated with the team at We Create Space, I want to discuss the role of this particular structure in helping us think through safety.

The ‘Four Stages of Psychological Safety’ framework comes from Tim R. Clark’s book of the same name. It’s a useful roadmap and starting point for groups to better understand their existing cultures, systems, and how people feel. Using it, we can then build a roadmap for how to help our teams move ‘up’ the stages.

First is Inclusion Safety, the foundation of belonging

When a workplace gets it right, every individual feels accepted for who they are without fear of rejection or humiliation. In the context of JEDI, this stage is about recognising and valuing the diverse backgrounds, identities, and experiences of everyone on your team.

To get here, one way is to create and enforce specific anti-discrimination policies and practices. Training sessions, workshops, and hosting regular seminars to build knowledge can also help foster a safe space for dialogues, and to encourage an open conversation about our experiences. This is an essential pre-condition to encourage growth.

Learner Safety

When we’ve moved up to the next stage of learner safety, people feel safe to engage in the learning process. This involves asking questions, giving and receiving feedback, experimenting, and making mistakes without fear of embarrassment or punishment.

We can help people get here by encouraging individual mentorship, leadership, and professional development for everyone on our teams. Encouraging people of all levels to build their own roadmaps and create goals for their work can help foster this environment of encouraging learning and growth.

Another important pillar is the role of regular, cyclical feedback, and constructive criticism.

Contributor Safety

When we get this right, people feel safe to share their ideas, skills, abilities, perspectives, and experiences. We’ll know we’ve got here when each person’s different identities are valued, and we don’t have an organisational culture of valuing only one way of knowing. That can look like having one operating language common to all staff, but also encouraging people to speak in their own languages if they would like, so long as that does not alienate any other team members.

It means having the confidence to speak up and offer suggestions without fear of being marginalised or disregarded. When we get this right, we have established shared and inclusive decision-making, which celebrates and recognises everyone’s contributions. There are platforms to share ideas safely – including online platforms.

Finally, there is Challenger Safety.

This is the highest stage of psychological safety. It involves feeling safe to challenge the status quo, question existing practices, and voice concerns without fear of retaliation. Often, people who arrive at this stage are relative power holders, or have had this space made for them. This stage is crucial for fostering innovation and addressing systemic issues. If you are free to challenge, call out, and advocate for changes, you are in a great position to also address how your team mates, who may only feel like they’re at the inclusion safety stage, can progress further. People who feel they’re at this level therefore have a responsibility to look out for those at other stages of the journey, and to help them progress.

By understanding and implementing these stages, especially during JEDI exercises, our organisations can work towards creating open and transparent environments of safety to express yourselves, learn, contribute, and challenge. This is not only an important and necessary element for organisational culture, but can also do a lot to strengthen an individual’s motivation and interest in promoting JEDI within teams. Once you’ve got teams who feel at least included in the culture, you’re more likely to have people in your organisation who feel they belong, can contribute, and can grow.