Psychological Safety

“A shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”

--Behaviorial Scientist Amy Edmundson

Psychological safety allows for creativity, dependability, career growth, and the simple enjoyment of going to work and working with good people. Teams that don’t focus on psychological saftey run the risk of alienating diverse viewpoints and talent.

We can do a variety of small things to contribute to this:

  1. We make mistakes as a team.
    If a person made a mistake, what about the team culture or practices made it possible?
  2. Leaders can act as doors for failure and windows for success.
    (This is from the POV of outside the team, inside the team we still provided feedback and work toward improvement.)
  3. Create a culture of question asking.
    By asking questions frequently, people don’t avoid questions for fear of them being “dumb” questions. We also set the example it’s okay to not know something.
  4. Request and give feedback often.
    Feedback cycles should be short, and the team should have a habit of both seeking out and giving feedback.

Resources