What is Psychological Safety?
According to workplace experts, psychological safety is critical to workplace health and success. But what is psychological safety?
How open do you feel to take a risk at work? Are you afraid that if you make a mistake you’ll be embarrassed or rejected? How much do you trust the members of your team?
According to experts, questions like these help to measure a critical aspect of a healthy workplace—psychological safety. But what is psychological safety? Let’s look at what two experts say.
In 2012, Google was curious about what made a successful team, so they created “Project Aristotle” to find out. In their multi-million dollar, multi-year project, they came across the work of Dr. Amy Edmondson, a Harvard business professor, which gave them a key.
Sense of Confidence
In her 1999 study, “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams,” Edmondson defines psychological safety as:
“a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.”
According to Edmondson, psychological safety is:
a sense of confidence
that you won’t be embarrassed, rejected or punished for speaking up
because there is trust and respect
which makes people feel comfortable being themselves
The effect of a safe work environment is a stable foundation of confidence.
Four Stages of Safety
But that’s not the only way to understand psychological safety. Project Aristotle came along too early for the important work of Dr. Timothy R. Clark, but had the timing been right, no doubt Clark’s work would have been included.
comprised of four stages
of feeling included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge
which makes you feel unafraid of negative consequences
Clark sees psychological safety as a cumulative process in which you must pass from one stage to the next without skipping a stage in-between. There are challenges to overcome in each stage before moving to the next.
Making it Personal
As you read these thoughts on psychological safety, what’s coming up for you? Let’s return to our initial questions:
How open do you feel to take a risk at work?
Are you afraid that if you make a mistake you’ll be embarrassed or rejected?
How much do you trust the members of your team?
These questions get at the heart of the subject, regardless of which expert’s definition you prefer.
about trust and confidence
that you can take a risk, make a mistake, and even challenge others
without fear of facing negative consequences
from leaders or peers
Furthermore, psychological safety is:
a deep knowing
that you are yourself known and respected
by members of your team
who will still respect you and want to know you
even if you mess up or speak up
Isn’t psychological safety something we’d all like to have?