What is psychological safety?
Team psychological safety refers to the shared belief among team members that it is safe to express ideas, concerns, questions, and admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences. This belief is important for team learning behavior and ultimately affects team and organizational performance. The concept was discovered by Amy Edmondson during her research on the relationship between error-making and teamwork in hospitals, where she found that better teams reported more errors because they felt safe to do so. Psychological safety is an emergent property of the group, rather than an individual trait.
Why is team psychological safety important?
The benefits of team psychological safety includes team members feeling more engaged, better decision-making, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement. These benefits have been proven through research such as Edmondson's and Google's Project Aristotle. Additionally, not having psychological safety can negatively impact employee well-being and the overall performance of the organization.
How do we know our team has it?
Leaders can use a 7-item questionnaire to assess the perception of psychological safety within their teams:
If you make a mistake on this team, it is not held against you.
Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
People on this team sometimes accept others for being different.
It is safe to take a risk on this team.
It isn’t difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized
How to create team psychological safety?
Establishing a psychologically safe environment involves several good management practices such as setting clear expectations and norms, ensuring fairness and predictability, promoting open communication, actively listening to employees, providing support to team members, and displaying appreciation and humility when employees speak up.
Additionally, there are also several tactics worth considering suggested by Edmondson:
Make clear why employees’ voices matter.
Admit your own fallibility.
Actively invite input.
Respond productively.
My personal response
As a freshman at university, I found this article to be very insightful and thought-provoking. While I have only been a part of my university community for a short time, I have already encountered situations where I felt hesitant to speak up and share my ideas or concerns with my peers or professors.
Reading about psychological safety helped me understand why this is such an important concept for teams and organizations
Besides, as a team leader, knowing about team psychological safety also encourages me to create an environment where my team members feel comfortable taking risks, expressing themselves, and admitting mistakes without fear of negative consequences. This not only leads to better decision-making and innovation but also fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
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