Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is a concept from team research, most closely associated with Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School. In Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams, published in Administrative Science Quarterly in 1999, Edmondson defined team psychological safety as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. Her field study of 51 work teams in a manufacturing company found that psychological safety was associated with learning behavior, such as seeking feedback, discussing errors and asking for help.

The concept has since become central to discussions of team effectiveness, innovation and error prevention. Teams with higher psychological safety tend to surface problems earlier, because members are willing to speak up when something seems wrong.

Edmondson's work describes psychological safety as the condition that makes candid disagreement possible. A team can hold high standards and still be psychologically safe, and in that combination learning tends to be strongest.

Leaders shape psychological safety through their behavior. Responding constructively to bad news, acknowledging their own mistakes, inviting input explicitly and reacting to dissent with curiosity all signal that speaking up is welcome. Inconsistent reactions, even occasional ones, can quickly teach a team to stay quiet.

The topic connects to political skill in two ways. Leaders with strong social astuteness are better at noticing when a team has gone quiet and why. Leaders with high apparent sincerity are more likely to be believed when they say that candor is welcome, which is what allows safety to take hold.

In the Pine model, these behaviors relate to Projected Authenticity and Relationship Navigation, and 360 feedback is one way for a leader to learn how safe their team actually feels.

Reference: Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350 to 383.