Psychological Safety - coined by Prof Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business - describes a team culture where members feel that they have permission for candor. It came out of a study at Google into high-performing teams.
It is observed as a group-level phenomenon that shapes the learning behavior of the group. Psychological Safety leads to measurably better decision-making and is strongly linked to outcome performance in creative, novel and collaborative work.
Questions that Edmondson initially used to measure:
- 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.
Measures leaders can take to foster Psychological Safety on team:
- Show that input is valued and considered (or people will keep it to themselves)
- Emphasize by explicitly asking for it
- Emphasize by being truly curious, never blaming / dismissive
- Invite to trust by extending trust (be vulnerable)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Psychological safety
- What is Psychological Safety (HBR)
- What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team (NYT)
