What does psychological safety mean?
According to Amy Edmondson, a leading researcher on the topic, “psychological safety” is “a belief that no one will be punished or humiliated for sharing ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.”
She stresses: psychologically safe teams are “characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect, in which people are comfortable being themselves”. In such teams, team members feel:
- The environment is safe for interpersonal risk taking
- They are able to speak up when needed
- Colleagues are able to be candid with each other
As per Google researchers, psychological safety “refers to an individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is safe for risk taking in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative, or disruptive. In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.”
We are living in times when things like collaboration, autonomy, and self-organizing teams are mandatory for many organizations in order to foster innovation. But how to innovate in an organization where failing is punished or, even worse, where leaders are still imposing their “brilliant” ideas on their teams?
Why is psychological safety important?
In the modern economy, teams and organizations are looking for ideas, innovation, and creativity characteristics that need the adequate system (environment) to spark. Additionally it is essential to attract and retain talent. Here is another question: Can an innovative, creative, and exceptionally talented team achieve their potential if they do not feel safe to speak their minds? Perhaps you can achieve some results in a command and control system with a few lonely geniuses (bosses), however these results are not sustainable.
Ok, not every idea is a killer idea. And yes, there are stupid questions. And yes (again), dissent can slow things down. But talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process.
As Google’s research pointed out, “Taking a risk around your team members may sound simple. But asking a basic question like ‘what’s the goal of this project?’ may make you sound like you’re out of the loop. It might feel easier to continue without getting clarification in order to avoid being perceived as ignorant.”
Psychological safety and learning behavior
So far, we see that innovation will not happen if people do not find a safe place to ask questions, share ideas, or try new experiments and hypotheses. There is a strong correlation between innovative, psychological safe spaces, and learning organizations.
Amy Edmondson offers this framework to understand where your team might be based on levels of psychological safety, and accountability to meet demanding goals.
If organizations and leaders only care about holding people accountable, but people are not free to express their opinions, ideas, and questions, we would put them in the Anxiety Zone. In this zone, we follow orders and instructions, even when we know that they are wrong.
To reach the Learning Zone which is the high performance zone, organizations and leaders must create a safe environment, especially when we face complexity, uncertainty, and high levels of interdependence. In this zone, people learn and bring the best of themselves to the work.
For a moment imagine a trapeze artist at a circus. If the artist wants to introduce new performances to the show, she is going to need to practice, to experiment with new routines, new techniques, and rehearse. Now imagine doing all this without a safety net. What are the chances she still continues bringing some new performances to the show when an error could be deadly?
Psychological safety works as the net.
So, thinking about your own team, in which quadrant would you place it today? And, if it’s not in the Learning Zone, what could you do to nudge it in that direction?
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