Using psychological safety to accelerate digital innovation in defence

The Ministry of Defence’s Digital Strategy for Defence recognises that: “Digital and data networks and devices, protected by our cyber enterprise, are ever more critical to Defence’s ability to safeguard our nation’s security, stability and prosperity.” As with any organisation working towards digital transformation however, buy-in to this new digital culture must be embedded across the whole of the defence enterprise. And while for some, digitalisation generates feelings of excitement and an eagerness to embrace innovation; for others, it may engender fear, trepidation and even embarrassment at their lack of digital knowledge.

This isn’t a generational issue, or even one related to organisational roles – but responding to this division is critical. To achieve success in defence’s digital transformation (and, indeed, in digital transformation across a range of sectors), a psychologically-safe environment must be created, where stakeholders can admit to their concerns, fears, and gaps in knowledge.

So, what is psychological safety? Amy C Edmondson, a leading academic in this area, defines it as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes, and that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” While conscious punishment or humiliation is quite obviously wrong, there may still be unconscious behaviours around digital transformation that create anxiety in those who identify as ‘non-digital’.

MoD has recognised the value of this concept with its own research on major projects finding that psychological safety explains 37.5% of the variance in team performance scores, aligning with research by Dr Edmondson linking psychological safety with team performance.

As a starting point for digital transformation, the vocabulary around new processes may be a steep learning curve for some. People may feel insecure about knowledge gaps, leading them to resist change or accept it without challenge or understanding – the latter potentially resulting in the delivery of a low-value solution.

During any digital transformation project, those involved must actively promote the psychological safety of the engagement process. For example, MoD may be exploring Generative AI to address or manage a complex problem: senior stakeholders should feel comfortable asking questions about the basics so they can understand AI’s value and how to integrate it.

For those delivering transformational technologies, this can be as simple as building ‘any questions’ moments into conversations, having varied communication and information channels, or developing a project glossary. A greater understanding of the technology’s benefits and adoption will also enable stakeholders to suggest wider use cases that maximise its value, increasing the likelihood of success.

Digital empathy

Another area where psychological safety offers benefits to defence’s digital transformation projects is when assessing the ‘as-is’ state of a systems. The goal of digitalisation is to optimise a system, making people’s tasks quicker, safer, more efficient, and less stressful. Existing systems will likely have sub-optimal areas and there’s no shame in this: whether it’s a messy data storage area, or documents stored in random places, the role of a digital professional is not to judge, but to help.

Once these problems are out in the open, the digital team and stakeholders can work together to create a solution. The solution shouldn’t aim at being best-for-digital, instead it should focus on being best-for-user. That means not only acknowledging the messy data store or mismatched documentation but investigating what led to it. This isn’t to assign blame, but to ensure future barriers to success are broken down.

Establishing psychological safety

Psychological safety must be led from the top and gain buy-in at all levels. This means creating an open environment where people can constructively challenge digital activities and share lessons learned to encourage innovation, demonstrating that mistakes are an opportunity for growth. Ensuring all defence technology users know that their views are important regardless of their digital skill level, is paramount to defence’s success.

About AtkinsRéalis

Created by the integration of long-standing organisations dating back to 1911, AtkinsRéalis is a world-class engineering services and nuclear company dedicated to engineering a better future for our planet and its people.

As a strategic supplier to the UK defence market, AtkinsRéalis has worked with defence organisations for decades to support the delivery of major programmes across land, maritime, air and joint environments, providing expertise in engineering, infrastructure, advanced digital technologies and major programme delivery. Through its role as one of three Engineering Delivery Partnership for the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S) function, AtkinsRéalis is also working across a range of projects including cyber security, environmental and safety, training and systems engineering.