What is the connection between psychological safety and conflict?

Psychological safety is a term that’s been gaining popularity over the last few years, especially as businesses grapple with establishing a new normal since the onset of the pandemic. Originally coined by Amy Edmonson in the book The Fearless Organization, “team organizational safety” is a more nuanced way of describing how to build an environment of trust in the workplace. Trust that individual employees can speak with candor about challenges, mistakes, observations, and concerns without fear of retaliation.

To me this sounds like a work environment with healthy a conflict management culture.

In workplaces where employees are afraid of potential conflict, they may expend a lot of energy parsing their words or maneuvering around the elephant in the room. The result is often that unhealthy and inefficient patterns become endemic, sometimes leading to burnout, high turnover, or even legal issues if conflict erupts.

When organizations invest in building conflict management capacity it doesn’t mean that conflict never happens. That’s impossible! Where there are people, there will be conflict. However, with effective conflict management tools and and investment in building open communication, conflict can become a positive force for growth. Relationships are strengthened when conflict is handled effectively. Resources are used more efficiently if time isn’t wasted on avoidance tactics and subterfuge. And the overall organizational impact is greater.

The impact of effective conflict management is just as relevant in for profit businesses, non profit organizations, volunteer and social justice activism groups… Again, anywhere there are people trying to work together, there will be conflict.

One effective way to bring more effective conflict management into an organization is to learn the tools of mediation. Mediation is a conflict resolution process that utilizes a trained third party, trusted by all sides, to intervene and support the communication and collaborative problem solving of individuals experiencing conflict. But the tools of the mediator have much broader application than just the mediation process itself.

Learning to become a mediator is a great way to build more effective conflict management skills overall. That’s one reason why I strongly believe that #MediationIsForEveryone.