Instilling Psychological Safety in the Workplace-Instilling Psychological Safety in the Workplace

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Jonathan Bonanno delivered a webinar on psychological safety in the workplace, with a focus on dentistry. He shared his unconventional path from corporate healthcare into dental practice management and industrial-organizational psychology, using that background to explain why team culture matters.<br /><br />He defined psychological safety, tracing the concept to Amy Edmondson, and emphasized that high-performing teams need a foundation of safety and trust. He introduced Timothy Clark’s four stages: inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety, and challenger safety. These stages help team members feel accepted, learn without fear, share ideas, and respectfully question the status quo.<br /><br />Bonanno also discussed the “psychological contract,” or the unwritten expectations between employees and employers. When expectations, communication, fairness, and trust are honored, teams see better engagement, satisfaction, cohesion, retention, motivation, and less stress and burnout. When they are broken, the opposite occurs.<br /><br />He stressed that leaders set the tone through self-awareness, communication style, emotional regulation, and consistency. He ended by encouraging attendees to use safety surveys and the “Safety Six” questions to assess their own teams and begin meaningful conversations about culture, trust, and change.

Asset Caption

Description In today’s rapidly evolving work environments, fostering psychological safety is crucial for the well-being and productivity of employees. This 60-minute educational presentation will explore the concept of psychological safety, its importance in the workplace, and practical strategies to create and maintain a psychologically safe environment. Participants will learn how psychological safety positively impacts team dynamics, innovation and organizational success. Learning Objectives Define and understand the concept of psychological safety. Recognize the benefits of psychological safety for individuals and organizations. Identify the signs of a psychologically safe or unsafe workplace. Understand the role of leaders and team members in fostering psychological safety. Learn practical strategies and tools to create and maintain a psychologically safe workplace.

Keywords

psychological safety

workplace culture

dental practice management

team trust

Amy Edmondson

Timothy Clark

psychological contract

leadership communication

employee engagement