There is a debate as to which comes first, Resilience or Psychological Safety. We think the question is not relevant, they are in fact the same thing. The Resilience Dynamic®, our foremost research model that explains what resilience is, shows an increasing level of resilience from Breakdown of resilience, through to Breakthrough. This ‘map of resilience’ can also be read as a map of Psychological Safety.
Being Resilient means being able to adapt to the resilience demands you face, in healthy and effective ways. You need to build and grow your own safety to do this. This safety is with yourself, and with others, in all the contexts you work and live in.
Breakthrough is where you are the most adaptable to the resilience demands upon you, without in any way undermining your own integrity. Breakthrough gives both coherence and adaptability.
How To Enable Psychological Safety
To enable Psychological Safety is part and parcel of the work of building resilience in yourself, your team and your organisation.
For managers and leaders, there are some very practical ways of developing skills for Psychological Safety. Coaching skills such as learning to listen well and choosing great questions are first, with the underlying attitudes of enabling people to be at their best. If you experience behaviours that undermine psychological safety such as over-reacting, automatic negative judgement, creating stress in others or seeking to control everything, all point to a need for developing the resilience of the manager much more.
