How to do Psychological Safety
Professor Amy Edmondson coined the term 'Psychological Safety' in 1999 (Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School) as a "shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking". It was identified as a critical factor in team learning and High-Performance Team development and performance. An all-inclusive and understanding environment is a breeding ground for new ideas where team members feel they can put forward risky or innovative concepts because they know they will be taken seriously. Hostile business environments lead to the stagnation of creativity, poor work ethics, dogmatic policies, and low retention.
The concept of Psychological Safety is particularly relevant in the modern business world, which counts on teams to innovate and perform in a chaotic environment. Team members who have no sense of Psychological Safety are unlikely to collaborate efficiently and effectively, and productivity will be hampered as a result. An atmosphere of Psychological Safety means that people are content and able to admit and discuss mistakes; a healthy, positive learning and high-performance environment is created.
Research confirms that higher levels of Psychological Safety led to more effective team learning and, in turn, higher team performance. Professor Edmondson demonstrated that in an environment of Psychological Safety, a cycle of learning is created; team members are more likely to ask questions and speak up to express issues and concerns, leading to the quicker identification of problems and search for solutions.
