What allows some teams to surface and learn from their errors while others did not? “Psychological safety” is a term popularized by Amy Edmondson, an American scholar of organizational learning, to describe a shared belief that a team is a safe place for interpersonal risk taking.

• Psychological safety is a precursor to adaptive, innovative team performance.
• When we feel comfortable asking for help, sharing suggestions informally or challenging the status quo without fear of negative consequences, our teams are more likely to innovate quickly, unlock the benefits of diversity and adapt well to change.

In 2012, Google embarked on an initiative with the code name Project Aristotle to study hundreds of teams and find out what led some to succeed more than others. They found that the number one predictor of team performance was psychological safety. The key word here is “safety.” On teams lacking psychological safety, people feel at risk of being blamed or shamed for our mistakes and sense that it is risky to disagree or admit failures.

• This implicit feeling of being under threat leads us to shift into protection and revert to reactive behaviors.
• In a psychologically safe environment, however, we know our identities and relationships are safe and secure if we make a mistake and open up about it.
• This feeling of safety allows us to shift into learning both individually and as a whole, even when under stress and pressure.

In this state of learning, we can develop a new relationship with failure. Of course, we do not want to make mistakes or fail, and we must be held accountable for finding solutions. But when we are trying to innovate in a dynamic, uncertain environment in which we need to learn and master entirely new skills, errors and missteps are inevitable.

In fact, if we do not encounter hiccups in an adaptive environment, it often means that we haven’t set our sights high enough. By learning from those failures in a psychologically safe environment, we can continuously adapt and improve in a dynamic environment. What is ‘Double-Loop’ Learning? Most of us got to where we are because we are good at one kind of learning: single-loop learning, which involves solving hard problems with known methods and approaches.

We tend to shift into protection and react by relying on known methods that simply won’t work in this new situation. There is, however, a second form of learning, called double-loop learning or adaptive learning. For example, a thermostat set to 68 degrees that turns the heat on anytime the room drops below 68 is engaging in single-loop learning.

• A thermostat engaging in double-loop learning would explore the most economical way to heat the room, asking, ” Why am I set to 68 degrees?” With double-loop learning, we explore and discover new methods and solutions by modifying our goals and decision-making rules in light of our experience.
• The only way to create a new reality is to move into the unknown and change our orientation, and failure will almost certainly be a part of the journey.

This means that we can only engage in double loop learning in a psychologically safe environment, where we make learning from experience (and therefore mistakes) part of the adaptive solution-finding process. We integrate this learning when we are able to fail without facing disastrous consequences and keep going.

If we fail and are punished or demeaned for it, we learn that we should avoid taking risks that might make us look bad or cause others to think less of us, so we play it safe and limit our potential to learn and grow. The Role of Leaders Leaders play an important role in fostering psychological safety within their teams.

In fact, as leaders our emotions often have a multiplier effect on our teams and organizations. When a leader is impatient, fearful, commanding or frustrated, it can shut down certain kinds of conversations. If a team is facing an adaptive challenge, this can really kill the creativity and learning that we need to engage in to find new solutions.

When a leader demonstrates deliberate calm and is hopeful, calm, open and curious, the group can face challenges more creatively. When leaders provide a foundation of trust, support, and psychological safety, it allows them to challenge and push their teams to do more than they initially think they can.

This form of challenging leadership grounded in their trust in the capabilities of the team strengthens team performance and can lead employees to express creativity, feel empowered to make changes, and seek to learn and improve, but only when a positive, supportive team climate with psychological safety is already in place.

Acknowledge that mistakes happen.Avoid showing anger when mistakes happen.Help team members correct mistakes.

What great looks like:

Share your own mistakes vulnerably and often.Remind team members frequently that our work is complex and that we should expect mistakes.Reframe mistakes as steps in a longer journey, as valuable feedback and data we can work with, and as an opportunity to learn.

2. ENCOURAGE ALL VOICES What good looks like:

Every time there’s a big decision, explicitly ask, ” Are we ready to move forward ?” and make sure everyone says ” yes,”Avoid using discrediting language when somebody shares (e.g., avoid saying things like ” yes, but,,” or ” There is a lot of context that you don’t know “).

What great looks like:

Actively avoid the “sunflower” effect, where others align with the view of the leader.Remind the team frequently of the power of having everyone share. Note that, in our complex world, leaders don’t have all the answers and everyone has a unique and useful part of the answer. Ask people to share their thoughts as well as their feelings and underlying beliefs or assumptions.Invite participation in neutral, nonthreatening ways (e.g., ” What could be a viewpoint we are missing? Are there any blind spots we missed ?”) and pause long enough for people to speak up.Set up formal team mechanisms to encourage sharing of ideas (e.g., have a standing “devil’s advocate meeting” to pressure-test plans and ideas).Fill silences with questions instead of comments.Explain why certain points of view were not incorporated into a final decision; share context and the decision-making process with the team transparently.

3. APPRECIATE CONTRIBUTIONS What good looks like:

Proactively and frequently acknowledge the good job that team members are doing.Say “thank you” when people speak up or go above and beyond the norm.

What great looks like:

Make recognition part of your team’s language and norms.Give special thanks to people who bring up uncomfortable, hard issues, recognizing contributions to the open group dynamic as much as problem solving.Be specific about any action that you celebrate, and the impact it had on you.Acknowledge the points that others make during a meeting (e.g., ” To build on Cara’s point “).

4. COACH TEAM MEMBERS TO HELP AND SUPPORT EACH OTHER What good looks like:

Encourage peer recognition (e.g., set a team norm to write a two- minute thank-you note every day).Remind team members that it is everyone’s role to enhance the experience of others on the team.

What great looks like:

Develop norms encouraging team members to give their views.Coach team members to support each other (e.g., ask them to ask deep questions to really understand what their team members are bringing to the discussion).Provide feedback and coaching to individual team members on their contributions to psychological safety.

Excerpted and adapted with permission from Deliberate Calm: How to Learn and Lead in a Volatile World, by Jacqueline Brassey, Michiel Kruyt and Aaron DeSmet of McKinsey & Company (Harper Business, 2022)

How can you as a leader nurture psychological safety within your team and organization?

8. Celebrate wins. – Notice and acknowledge what’s going well. Positive interactions and conversations between individuals are built on trust and mutual respect. So share credit and embrace expertise among many, and the success of the collective, versus a single “hero” mentality.

Celebrate what’s going well, however small, and appreciate people’s efforts. Encouraging and expressing gratitude reinforces your team members’ sense of self. Give your team members the benefit of the doubt when they take a risk, ask for help, or admit a mistake. In turn, trust that they will do the same for you.

Ready to try out some small, intentional steps to create psychological safety at work and at home? Take our 7-day psychological safety challenge !

Why the most successful leaders create a psychologically safe workplace?

Why psychological safety matters in the workplace – Psychological safety isn’t merely a nice to have — it’s essential for a business to operate efficiently and effectively. Without it, employees won’t trust their employer, and the whole business can suffer.

“If you think about it from the business perspective, when people feel psychologically safe in the organization — are able to share ideas, questions, concerns — the company is more agile,” says Julian Lute, senior manager and strategic advisor with Great Place To Work®. “We’ve seen through our research on psychological safety that when people question their every move, when people aren’t sure if they should raise questions, initiatives and programs roll out very slowly.” A lack of psychological safety can thwart new projects, processes, and procedures.

Without it, employees fear anything from being criticized if they can’t keep pace, to being made redundant because of new, “better” initiatives. But creating psychological safety goes beyond just encouraging people to speak up. It also includes how an employer views work/life balance.

“Great leadership is about making employees feel safe so they can focus on work without fear for their own survival.” “Psychological safety allows people to bring their full selves,” says Julian. “It allows you to show up in a way that’s much more authentic. The company is looking out for you. You’re not just a cog in the machine, and they care about your long-term success.

And then the benefit that the company gets is that employees actually care about the success of the organization.”

Why is psychological safety important in leadership?

Why is psychological safety important? – First, psychological safety leads to team members feeling more engaged and motivated, because they feel that their contributions matter and that they’re able to speak up without fear of retribution. Second, it can lead to better decision-making, as people feel more comfortable voicing their opinions and concerns, which often leads to a more diverse range of perspectives being heard and considered.

Third, it can foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement, as team members feel comfortable sharing their mistakes and learning from them. (This is what my boss was doing in the opening story.) All of these benefits — the impact on a team’s performance, innovation, creativity, resilience, and learning — have been proven in research over the years, most notably in Edmondson’s original research and in a study done at Google.

That research, known as Project Aristotle, aimed to understand the factors that impacted team effectiveness across Google. Using over 30 statistical models and hundreds of variables, that project concluded that who was on a team mattered less than how the team worked together.

How does leadership influence safety?

| Why is safety leadership important? | – According to Marcel Simard, a sociologist and professor at Montreal University, safety leadership is a key feature of safety ‘champions’. Rather than demonstrating power, or setting the perfect example, safety leadership is oriented towards learning and continuous improvement, spending time in the field, and dialogue.

• stimulates interest and buy-in,
• encourages shared awareness of risks,
• creates the climate of trust that is needed for employees to report incidents and, consequently, participate in improving safety, and, ultimately,
• has a positive influence on safety practices.

Safety leadership is a key component in a successful safety culture. In this ‘integrated’ culture, safety is everyone’s responsibility, it’s not just for managers. All staff, from employees, to managers and directors are involved and feel responsible for safety, whatever their level in the organization.

How many basic categories of action do leaders create a culture of psychological safety?

Past research by Frazier et al. (2017) found three categories to be the main drivers of psychological safety: positive leader relations, work-design characteristics, and a positive team climate.

What is a psychologically safe leader?

Certification – After finishing 5 of the 7 Psychologically Safe Leader Meth courses, passing course quizzes, and completing the Applications of Knowledge for those courses, participants will be Certified in the Psychologically Safe Leader Method. This can happen in as little as 6-months.

• Walking away with evidence-based frameworks and expert tips, participants will be ready to apply what they’ve learned to address any leadership challenge they face.
• This will make them an essential asset to their organization and a transformational leader.
• Psychologically Safe Leader Method was developed for anyone who has a role, or is aspiring to have a role where they are responsible for managing, influencing or leading people in the workplace or who work remotely.

This can include managers, supervisors, directors, occupational health, disability management, wellness professionals, consultants, etc. Download our program overview for more information and to share with co-workers, colleagues, and friends. Course 1: Foundations for Psychologically Safe Leadership Learning Outcomes:

• Communication strategies that build trust and commitment.
• A framework to address employee performance challenges that focus on employee commitment to change.
• Personalized plans to help leaders and staff manage stress, support their well-being, and address current stressors.

Skills nurtured in this course: Communication skills, Active listening, Powerful questioning, Emotional intelligence, Problem-solving, Leading hybrid teams, Delegation, and Productivity Upon finishing each course, participants will receive a certificate of completion that includes hours spent and the learning objectives of that course, with a total of 70 hours for the entire course library. This can be used for continuing education credits with most organizations.

Why do good leaders make people feel safe?

Work should be Fun! Deep learning employee voice software that powers your transformation. – Published Feb 25, 2022 History has seen countless great leaders who have not only been successful but have also ensured that the people who support them or work under them are successful as well.

• A good leader always puts the interest of their employees over their own and is willing to sacrifice the numbers for the people.
• In short, good leaders also produce a great set of next-gen leaders.
• This brilliant Ted Talk by Simon Oliver Sinek, a British-American author, and inspirational speaker revolves around why some leaders are so popular and why teams put their heart and soul towards ensuring that the vision of such leaders is realized.

When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first, to sacrifice their comforts, and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen.

Hope you enjoyed the talk. Leadership, as Sinek says, is protecting your team against dangers. It has been the same since ancient times and will continue to be the same in the future. The dangers, be it new technology, financial crunches, lack of motivation, etc will always be there and will evolve constantly.

What must remain consistent is the ability of a leader to trust in their team, keep them as a family and help them feel safe thus allowing them to grow. While learning leadership qualities is a gradual process, a significant part of being a good leader involves understanding your employees.

Why do good leaders make me feel safe?

The leader sets the tone If we feel safe, we will combine our strengths to work together. If not, we will spend our energy protecting ourselves from each other, which doesn’t lead to positive results. And the leader sets the tone, it’s up to the leader to create this environment.

What are the 4 stages of psychological safety leaderfactor?

Psychological Safety Framework – The 4 stages of psychological safety framework has four components, inclusion safety, learner safety, contributor safety, and challenger safety. In order to understand each one a little better, we’re breaking them down into their definitions, as well as some stage-specific psychological safety examples for you:

What is a psychologically safe leader?

Certification – After finishing 5 of the 7 Psychologically Safe Leader Meth courses, passing course quizzes, and completing the Applications of Knowledge for those courses, participants will be Certified in the Psychologically Safe Leader Method. This can happen in as little as 6-months.

Walking away with evidence-based frameworks and expert tips, participants will be ready to apply what they’ve learned to address any leadership challenge they face. This will make them an essential asset to their organization and a transformational leader. Psychologically Safe Leader Method was developed for anyone who has a role, or is aspiring to have a role where they are responsible for managing, influencing or leading people in the workplace or who work remotely.

This can include managers, supervisors, directors, occupational health, disability management, wellness professionals, consultants, etc. Download our program overview for more information and to share with co-workers, colleagues, and friends. Course 1: Foundations for Psychologically Safe Leadership Learning Outcomes:

• Communication strategies that build trust and commitment.
• A framework to address employee performance challenges that focus on employee commitment to change.
• Personalized plans to help leaders and staff manage stress, support their well-being, and address current stressors.

Skills nurtured in this course: Communication skills, Active listening, Powerful questioning, Emotional intelligence, Problem-solving, Leading hybrid teams, Delegation, and Productivity Upon finishing each course, participants will receive a certificate of completion that includes hours spent and the learning objectives of that course, with a total of 70 hours for the entire course library. This can be used for continuing education credits with most organizations.

Jack Gloop