The power of psychological safety for supporting change and high-performing teams
St James Place, a leading financial company, recently finished its 'Psychological Safety and Trust' program with the Laughology team. The programme was designed to enhance relationships, support change and build on communication between different teams.
From October 2023 to February 2024, 352 employees went through a bespoke learning journey facilitated by Lead Happiness Consultant Dave Keeling and Head of Happiness Stephanie Davies. The program was delivered using a hybrid model with virtual classrooms, learning resources and face-to-face delivery across four cities: Manchester, Newcastle, Bristol and London.
Each delegate took part in three core modules:
- An introduction to psychological safety and trust
- Practical application and peer-to-peer learning using psychology models and discussing theory
- Reflections on learning and implementation. The programme used the Kirkpatrick evaluation model to measure success and impact.
The 'Introduction' session introduced the program, focusing on the foundations of psychological safety and trust. An initial survey assessed attendees' baseline understanding, setting the stage for growth. The 'practical application' module provided hands-on tools and techniques, including the 'Drama Triangle'—a social model that reviews the behaviours and interplay between people and the roles they can adopt of Victim, Persecutor, and Rescuer. It encourages individuals to step away from these reactive positions and manage healthier relationships and states.
Attendees learned to recognise 'echo chambers', engage in regular feedback, verify communication effectiveness, and find ways for positive contracting with individuals and teams to help establish clear expectations for everyone.
The final 'Reflection and implementation' session allowed people to share success stories and tangible outcomes of applying the new tools in real-world scenarios. Surveys showed a marked increase in the application of principles, fostering trust and psychological safety within teams.
Feedback praised the practicality and relevance of the material, with examples of improved discussions between managers and teams, a more balanced approach to communications, and the benefits of pausing to reflect before reacting. Various interviews supported qualitative measures which gave examples of stories of success such as ‘changing from ‘reactive rescuer' to a proactive coach’ highlighted the program's impact on personal and professional development, reinforcing the importance of psychological safety and building important relationships between teams that will help us progress with change’.
If you would like more information on how embedding psychological safety will help your team take on new challenges, please get in touch with doug@laughology.co.uk
