Understanding Psychological Safety: What You Need to Know

What Is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that it's safe to take risks, express ideas and concerns, speak up with questions, and admit mistakes—all without fear of negative consequences. It's often described as "felt permission for candour." This concept was introduced by Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor. She discovered it while studying teamwork in hospitals and found that the best teams reported more errors, suggesting they felt safe to report mistakes and learn from them. Importantly, psychological safety is a group-level phenomenon that significantly impacts team performance and organizational success.

Why Is Psychological Safety Important?

Psychological safety offers numerous benefits for teams and organizations:

1. Increased Engagement and Motivation: When employees feel psychologically safe, they are more engaged and motivated. They believe their contributions matter and that they can speak up without fear of retribution.

2. Better Decision-Making: Psychological safety encourages open communication, leading to a more diverse range of perspectives. This diversity in thought often results in better decision-making.

3. Fostering a Culture of Continuous Learning: Teams with psychological safety feel comfortable sharing their mistakes and learning from them. This culture of continuous learning contributes to resilience, innovation, and improved team performance.

These benefits have been supported by research, including Edmondson's original studies and the Google Project Aristotle, which found that psychological safety is the most critical factor in team effectiveness. On the flip side, the absence of psychological safety can lead to negative impacts on employee well-being, including stress, burnout, and turnover, as well as harm organizational performance.

How Has the Idea Evolved?

Over the years, the concept of psychological safety has evolved. Here are some important developments:

• Context Matters: Psychological safety is especially vital in work environments where employees need to exercise their discretion. In situations where work is creative, novel, or collaborative, psychological safety has a stronger impact.

• Hybrid Work Environments: The rise of hybrid work arrangements has necessitated a rethinking of psychological safety. Managers need to adapt their approaches to maintain psychological safety in diverse work settings.

• Interaction with Diversity: New research indicates that high psychological safety is associated with positive performance outcomes when teams are diverse. Psychological safety may be the key to realizing the promise of diversity in teams.

• Deskless workers: 80% of the worlds workforce is deskless. These workers face challenges that demand special attention when it comes to psychological safety. Learn how to support them effectively with our insights. Read more about Psychological Safety for Deskless Workers.

How Do You Measure Psychological Safety?

Assessing psychological safety in your team is crucial. Amy Edmondson has developed a simple 7-item questionnaire to gauge the perception of psychological safety. Here are the questions:

1. If you make a mistake on this team, it is not held against you.
2. Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
3. People on this team sometimes accept others for being different.
4. It is safe to take a risk on this team.
5. It isn't difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
6. No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
7. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.

While these questions provide insights into your team's psychological safety, the scores themselves are not definitive. What matters is the variance. Use the data to reflect on your team's experience and consider what you can do to improve that experience.

How Do You Create Psychological Safety?

Fostering psychological safety is not an exact science; it's more art than science. It's a climate that leaders and team members co-create in various ways. Here are some tactics to create psychological safety:

• Establish Clear Norms and Expectations: Set clear norms and expectations for behaviour within the team to create predictability and fairness.

• Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where team members feel encouraged to communicate openly, actively listen to employees, and offer support.

• Make the Importance Clear: Explain why employees' voices matter and how their input can affect the outcomes of the work.

• Admit Your Own Fallibility: Leaders should model vulnerability by owning up to their mistakes and demonstrating how they've learned from them. Click here to read more about Leadership and Psychological Safety.

• Actively Invite Input: Don't assume team members will share their thoughts without prompting. Explicitly request their input and ask open-ended questions.

• Respond Productively: Replace blame with curiosity when team members speak up with feedback or ideas. Be appreciative, forward-thinking, and open to different perspectives.

Common Misconceptions

There are a couple of misconceptions about psychological safety that need to be addressed:

• It's All About Being Nice: Psychological safety is not about being "nice." In some polite workplaces, psychological safety may be lacking due to the absence of candour. It's about encouraging open and honest communication.

• You Must Feel Comfortable: Psychological safety doesn't mean that everyone feels comfortable all the time. It involves taking risks and being vulnerable, which can be uncomfortable. The key is to take these risks in an environment without negative interpersonal consequences. As Amy Edmondson puts it, "Candour is hard but non-candour is worse."

Conclusion

Creating a psychologically safe environment is an art more than a science, demanding vulnerability, open dialogue, and an appreciation for diverse perspectives. It's about admitting fallibility, actively inviting input, and responding with curiosity rather than blame. Psychological safety isn't about always feeling comfortable; it's about feeling safe enough to take risks and speak up, even when it's uncomfortable.

Dispelling misconceptions about psychological safety is crucial. It's not merely about being nice or comfortable; it's about nurturing an environment where candour is encouraged and open and honest communication thrives.

In the journey towards a culture of psychological safety, the commitment to progress is paramount. It's not a destination but a continuous evolution. As leaders and team members come together to foster psychological safety, they not only strengthen their organizations but also create a more positive, inclusive, and resilient work environment. Psychological safety is not just a concept—it's a living, breathing part of the modern workplace, and by prioritizing it, we can reap the numerous benefits it offers to individuals and teams alike.