[December 2021] Psychological Safety and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: How Embracing Discomfort Leads to Growth

As organizations work to fully embed equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in their values, goals, and culture, it is vital to create safe spaces for staff to learn, share, challenge ideas, and respectfully engage others—a process that also helps staff advance their own personal and professional EDI journeys.  

An important strategy for advancing EDI is creating psychological safety for staff, but the concept can be challenging for organizations to embrace for different reasons, such as individuals being in different phases of their personal EDI journeys or that there is misunderstanding about what psychological safety is and what it isn’t. While it is a state of feeling supported and accepted and a place where mistakes are treated as opportunities to learn, it isn’t free of accountability or discomfort. This interactive session will outline the benefits of a psychologically safe organization and will offer specific strategies that can be used to address common challenges and create an internal culture of psychological safety that fosters EDI growth.  

Learn more about advancing EDI and psychological safety 

Advancing Equity in the Social Sector Workforce 

There are many ways organizations can develop the competencies, practices, and policies to achieve their equity goals with workplace culture, human resources, and leadership and governance. 

Improving Practice by Improving Culture During Challenging Times 

Fundamental to culture change are psychologically safe teams who challenge each other, feel confident raising concerns and promoting new ideas, and treat failures as opportunities to learn and grow. 

Authentic Experience and Trusted Solutions 

The Alliance-COA is an ideal partner for professionals and their organizations seeking to either start their equity journey or accelerate their critical efforts to a new level of competence.