#MakeSafetySeen: Putting psychological safety first for a thriving team

In celebration of International Women in Engineering Day on June 23, we are sharing how our women engineers #MakeSafetySeen by demonstrating strong safety principles in their work and committing to deliver a safer world through their engineering expertise.

Follow this year’s conversations on LinkedIn and Twitter, as well as the AECOM Blog.

Over the past few years, I have worked on various major projects in Victoria, Australia, including the Metro Tunnel Project, Level Crossing Removal Projects, Geelong Fast Rail, and the North East Link. Currently, I’m the design delivery manager for the North East Link – North Package.

The North East Link program will build Victoria’s longest road tunnels, overhaul the Eastern Freeway, build Melbourne’s first dedicated busway, complete the Ring Road and build a North East Trail with more than 34 kilometers (21 miles) of walking and cycling paths. The project will fix a missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network, change how people move around the city and take around 15,000 trucks off local roads daily.

My role is to ensure we deliver the hundreds of design packages on time and on budget. We have just commenced the design phase and are ramping up to 300 full-time equivalent employees over the next few months. What I love about this role is the opportunity for AECOM to partner with the engineering and construction teams across other collaborating companies to deliver a quality design solution that solves complex design problems and achieves best-for-project outcomes. I love being a part of city-shaping projects and seeing something my team has designed be built.

Major projects involve mobilising a team of hundreds of designers and sub-consultants across different companies, backgrounds, and skills — many of whom haven’t worked together before. It’s vital to bring them together as one team and create a culture where each of us can thrive.

These large-scale projects are challenging, complex and fast-paced, and I thrive on this, but the construction industry can also be tough, with mental health being a challenge for many professionals. This is a cultural problem that needs to be addressed.

When I think about this year’s theme #MakeSafetySeen, the aspect that stands out to me is psychological safety. To me, this is fundamental to the success of a project. Psychological safety means it’s okay for team members to bring their whole selves to work, take risks, express their ideas and concerns, speak up with questions, and admit mistakes — all without fear of negative consequences. 

When team members are psychologically safe, they are more engaged and motivated because they feel their contributions matter. We make better decisions because people are more comfortable voicing their opinions and concerns, and we hear and consider a more diverse range of perspectives. We also create a continuous learning and improvement culture because team members feel comfortable sharing and learning from their mistakes.

I do my best to create psychological safety by ensuring everyone has a voice in meetings, openly admitting my mistakes, seeking input from others where I need it, and encouraging open communication. I don’t always get this right! Some people think psychological safety is about everyone being ‘nice’ or ‘polite’ or making everyone ‘comfortable’, but it’s not.

For me, it means being vulnerable and pointing out my mistakes and weaknesses when I would rather hide them. It also means I need to have honest and uncomfortable conversations with individuals and teams about attitudes and behaviours damaging to the team. It means that I need to welcome difficult news and feedback myself. But the results are totally worth it.

I wake up every day to a project that I am thrilled to be working on, a team in which people have each other’s back, and a team where I see people grow, flourish and feel empowered to take risks and try new things.

Header image credit: State Government of Victoria, Australia