hbr.org Open in urlscan Pro
18.67.110.121  Public Scan

Form analysis
1 forms found in the DOM

GET /search

<form action="/search" method="get">
  <div class="search-container ">
    <input type="hidden" name="search_type" value="search-all">
    <input class="pts pbm search-box-desktop" autocomplete="off" name="term" data-type="search-input" placeholder="Search hbr.org">
    <input class="search-box-mobile" autocomplete="off" name="term" placeholder="Search hbr.org">
    <button>
      <svg aria-labelledby="title" viewBox="0 0 24 24">
        <title>Search</title>
        <g>
          <path d="M24.06,23.22l-6.38-6.38a10.11,10.11,0,1,0-.85.85l6.37,6.37ZM1.2,10.13A8.93,8.93,0,1,1,10.13,19,8.94,8.94,0,0,1,1.2,10.13Z"></path>
        </g>
      </svg>
    </button>
    <a href="#" class="clear-search-box do-not-show" js-target="clear-search-box">CLEAR</a>
  </div>
  <div class="backdrop-white width-100pct zindex-highest hide top-header--search-suggest" data-purpose="search-auto-suggest">
    <div class="font-gt-america">
      <ul class="no-bullet ptm mbs" data-container="results">
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray"></li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray"></li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray"></li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray"></li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray"></li>
        <li class="pbl pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray has-border-bottom"></li>
        <li class="ptl font-size-xsmall text-gray-light font-bold">SUGGESTED TOPICS</li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray no-bullet"></li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray no-bullet"></li>
        <li class="pbm pts line-height-normal font-size-15 darker-medium-gray no-bullet"></li>
      </ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</form>

Text Content

ADVERTISEMENT


Navigation Menu

Leadership and managing people   |   What Is Psychological Safety?
Subscribe Sign In
Account Menu
Account Menu
Hi,
 Guest

Search Menu
Close menu
Search CLEAR
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * SUGGESTED TOPICS
 * 
 * 
 * 

Explore HBR
 * Latest
 * The Magazine
 * Ascend
 * Podcasts
 * Store
 * Webinars
 * Newsletters

Popular Topics
 * Managing Yourself
 * Leadership
 * Strategy
 * Managing Teams
 * Gender
 * Innovation
 * Work-life Balance
 * All Topics

For Subscribers
 * The Big Idea
 * Data & Visuals
 * Reading Lists
 * Case Selections
 * HBR Learning
 * Subscribe

My Account
 * My Library
 * Topic Feeds
 * Orders
 * Account Settings
 * Email Preferences
 * Log Out
 * Sign In

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

Subscribe Latest Podcasts The Magazine Ascend Store Webinars Newsletters All
Topics The Big Idea Data & Visuals Reading Lists Case Selections HBR Learning My
Library Account Settings Log Out Sign In


YOUR CART

Your Shopping Cart is empty.
Visit Our Store
Guest User
Subscriber
My Library Topic Feeds Orders Account Settings Email Preferences Log Out
Reading List
Reading Lists
Latest Magazine Ascend Topics Podcasts Store The Big Idea Data & Visuals Case
Selections HBR Learning

Leadership and managing people


WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

A culture of trust and belonging doesn’t just happen. Here’s how you make one.
by
 * Amy Gallo

by
 * Amy Gallo

February 15, 2023
Thomas Macpherson/Getty Images
 * Post
 * Post
 * Share
 * Annotate
 * Save
 * Get PDF
 * Buy Copies
 * Print

Summary.    What exactly is psychological safety? It’s a term that’s used a lot
but is often misunderstood. In this piece, the author answers the following
questions with input from Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, who
coined the phrase “team...more
Leer en español
Ler em português
 * Post
 * Post
 * Share
 * Annotate
 * Save
 * Get PDF
 * Buy Copies
 * Print

No one likes to deliver bad news to their boss. But that’s exactly what I had to
do when a project I’d been working on wasn’t delivering the results we expected.
I’d been a big advocate for our team taking on the initiative and, personally,
I’d invested a lot of time into it — and convinced others to do the same.





When I met with my manager to present the data, which showed that we hadn’t
recouped our investment and the initiative had performed worse than planned, I
was nervous. I would’ve understood if she had been frustrated or even angry and
I expected her to at least ask “What went wrong?” or “How could we have
prevented this?” (both questions I’d prepared answers for).

Instead, she asked a simple question: What did you learn?

I now understand that what she was doing was building psychological safety. She
understood that learning was key — my (and her team’s) future performance
depended on it. Psychological safety is a critical concept for teams and the
people that lead them. It’s also a topic we’ve covered quite a bit at HBR. But
not everyone knows or fully understands it, so I reached out to Amy Edmondson,
the Harvard Business School professor and author of The Fearless Organization,
who coined the phrase “team psychological safety,” to get a refresher on this
important idea. I asked her about where the term originated, how it’s evolved,
and, of course, how people can think about building psychological safety on
their own teams.


WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

Let’s start with a definition. Team psychological safety is a shared belief held
by members of a team that it’s OK to take risks, to express their ideas and
concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes — all without fear
of negative consequences. As Edmondson puts it, “it’s felt permission for
candor.”

Edmondson first landed on the concept when she was doing research for her PhD.
She had set out to study the relationship between error making and teamwork in
hospitals, expecting to find that more effective teams made fewer mistakes. But
what she found was that the teams who reported better teamwork seemed to
experience more errors. When she dug into the data, she began to suspect that
better teams might be more willing to report their mistakes – because they felt
safe doing so – and conducted follow up research to explore that hypothesis.

The “team” in team psychological safety is important. “This is a group level
phenomenon — it shapes the learning behavior of the group and in turn affects
team performance and therefore organizational performance,” she says. As
Edmondson explained to me, the sense of safety and willingness to speak up is
not an individual trait, even though it’s something you do feel and experience
at the individual level; “it’s an emergent property of the group.” In fact, in
most studies, people who work closely together have similar levels of
psychological safety compared to people in other teams.


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. And the most
important factor was psychological safety.

Further research has shown the incredible downsides of not having psychological
safety, including negative impacts on employee well-being, including stress,
burnout, and turnover, as well as on the overall performance of the
organization.


HOW HAS THE IDEA EVOLVED?

I asked Edmondson how the idea has changed in the 20 years since she first
starting writing about it. Academics have discovered some important nuances. For
example, she points out that psychological safety seems to matter more in work
environments where employees need to use their discretion. As she explains, “The
relationship between psychological safety and performance is stronger in
situations where the results or work aren’t prescribed, when you’re doing
something creative, novel, or truly collaborative.” She has also written about
how hybrid work requires that managers expand how they think about psychological
safety.

She and others have also been looking at how psychological safety interacts with
diversity on teams. New research by Edmondson and Henrik Bresman, a professor of
organizational behavior at INSEAD, has shown that on teams with high
psychological safety, expertise diversity was positively associated with
performance. While their study is a single one in a single industry (drug
development), it’s an important proof point “that psychological safety may be
the key to realizing the promise of diversity in teams.”


HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOUR TEAM HAS IT?

This is likely the question on many leaders’ minds. Edmondson has developed a
simple 7-item questionnaire to assess the perception of psychological safety (if
you want to run this survey with your team, there’s an instrument you can sign
up to use on Edmondson’s website).

How people answer these questions will give you a sense of the degree to which
they feel psychologically safe:

 1. If you make a mistake on this team, it is not held against you.
 2. Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
 3. People on this team sometimes accept others for being different.
 4. It is safe to take a risk on this team.
 5. It isn’t difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
 6. No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my
    efforts.
 7. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued
    and utilized.

Edmondson cautions however that the scores are not definitive; what matters is
the variance. “Anyone filling out a survey is doing so in a way that is relative
to their expectations,” she says. “For example, if I say ‘yes, I can ask for
help’ I’m doing that relative to what I think it ‘ought’ to be.” She suggests
managers use the data from the survey to reflect on your team’s experience and
be curious about what you could change to improve that experience. Which leads
to another critical question: what can you do to foster psychological safety?


HOW DO YOU CREATE PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?

Edmondson is quick to point out that “it’s more magic than science” and it’s
important for managers to remember this is “a climate that we co-create,
sometimes in mysterious ways.”

Anyone who has worked on a team marked by silence and the inability to speak up,
knows how hard it is to reverse that.

A lot of what goes into creating a psychologically safe environment are good
management practices — things like establishing clear norms and expectations so
there is a sense of predictability and fairness; encouraging open communication
and actively listening to employees; making sure team members feel supported;
and showing appreciation and humility when people do speak up.

There are a few additional tactics that Edmondson points to as well.


MAKE CLEAR WHY EMPLOYEES’ VOICES MATTER.

For most people, it feels safe to hold back and stay silent — they default to
keeping their ideas and opinions to themselves. “You have to override that
instinct by setting the stage for them to speak up,” she says. Explain clearly
and specifically why you need to hear from them, why their viewpoint and input
matters, and how it will affect the outcomes of the work.


ADMIT YOUR OWN FALLIBILITY.

If you, as a leader, can own up to and demonstrate how you’ve learned from your
mistakes, it paves the way for others. It’s important to model the behavior you
want to see in your team and normalize vulnerability. This includes things like
being respectful, open to feedback, and willing to take risks.


ACTIVELY INVITE INPUT.

Don’t assume people will tell you what they’re thinking or that they understand
that you want their input. “Explicitly request it,” says Edmondson. She suggests
asking open-ended questions like: What are you seeing? What are your thoughts on
this? Where do you stand on this idea?


RESPOND PRODUCTIVELY.

You can tell people you want their input or it’s OK to make mistakes, but they
won’t do those things if they feel like they’re being blamed or shut down.
Edmondson suggests asking yourself: When people speak up with a wacky idea or
tough feedback, how do you respond? Be “appreciative and forward-thinking.”
Also, replace blame with curiosity. As author and coach Laura Delizonna writes,
“If team members sense that you’re trying to blame them for something, you
become their saber-toothed tiger… The alternative to blame is curiosity. If you
believe you already know what the other person is thinking, then you’re not
ready to have a conversation. Instead, adopt a learning mindset, knowing you
don’t have all the facts.”


WHAT ARE COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS?

I also asked Edmondson if there are any myths or misconceptions about
psychological safety and she pointed to two.


“IT’S ALL ABOUT BEING NICE.”

Edmondson says that creating a psychologically safe environment isn’t about
being “nice.” In fact, there are many polite workplaces that don’t have
psychological safety because there’s no candor, and people feel silenced by the
enforced politeness. “Unfortunately, at work, nice is often synonymous with not
being candid.”


“YOU MUST FEEL COMFORTABLE IN A PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE ENVIRONMENT.”

“Too many people think that it’s about feeling comfortable all the time and that
you can’t say anything that makes someone else uncomfortable or you’re violating
psychological safety,” says Edmondson. That’s simply not true. Learning and
messing up and pointing out mistakes is usually uncomfortable. Being vulnerable
will feel risky. The key is to take risks in a safe environment – one without
negative interpersonal consequences. “Anything hard to achieve requires being
uncomfortable along the way.” She shares the analogy of an Olympic gymnast. In
her training, she pushes herself and her body; she takes risks but does so in a
way that she won’t get injured. Edmondson reminds us, “Candor is hard but
non-candor is worse.”

. . .

My boss’s simple response when I came to her feeling defeated has had a huge
impact on me. That one question — What did you learn? — changed the way that I
view my own missteps — with more compassion and understanding — and how I treat
others when they make mistakes. As my experience shows, by making psychological
safety a priority, leaders set up their teams for success now and long into the
future.

New!
HBR Learning

Leading People Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online
leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Leading People.
Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses
trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
What you need to know about being in charge.
Start Course
Learn More & See All Courses


MORE FROM THE AUTHOR

 * GETTING ALONG TOOLKIT: PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE
   AT WORK
   
   Book
   Buy Now

 * HBR GUIDE TO DEALING WITH CONFLICT TOOLKIT
   
   Book
   Buy Now

Read more on Leadership and managing people or related topics Leadership,
Management, Managing employees, Managing people, Employee performance
management, Motivating people and Managing yourself
 * Amy Gallo is a contributing editor at Harvard Business Review, cohost of the
   Women at Work podcast, and the author of two books: Getting Along: How to
   Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People) and the HBR Guide to Dealing with
   Conflict. She writes and speaks about workplace dynamics. Watch her TEDx talk
   on conflict and follow her on LinkedIn.
   amyegallo

 * Post
 * Post
 * Share
 * Annotate
 * Save
 * Get PDF
 * Buy Copies
 * Print

New!
HBR Learning
Leading People Course
Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online
leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Leading People.
Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses
trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
What you need to know about being in charge.
Start Course
Learn More & See All Courses

Read more on Leadership and managing people or related topics Leadership,
Management, Managing employees, Managing people, Employee performance
management, Motivating people and Managing yourself



RECOMMENDED FOR YOU

LEARNING TO APPRECIATE DISAGREEMENT AT WORK


PODCAST
CREATING PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY IN THE WORKPLACE

IF YOU THINK FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE WILL BE EXPENSIVE, CALCULATE THE COST OF
LETTING IT HAPPEN

BOEING AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ENCOURAGING EMPLOYEES TO SPEAK UP




PARTNER CENTER



Start my subscription!

EXPLORE HBR

 * The Latest
 * All Topics
 * Magazine Archive
 * The Big Idea
 * Reading Lists
 * Case Selections
   
   
 * Podcasts
 * Webinars
 * Data & Visuals
 * My Library
 * Newsletters
 * HBR Press
 * HBR Ascend

HBR STORE

 * Article Reprints
 * Books
 * Cases
 * Collections
 * Magazine Issues
 * HBR Guide Series
 * HBR 20-Minute Managers
 * HBR Emotional Intelligence Series
 * HBR Must Reads
 * Tools

ABOUT HBR

 * Contact Us
 * Advertise with Us
 * Information for Booksellers/Retailers
 * Masthead
 * Global Editions
 * Media Inquiries
 * Guidelines for Authors
 * HBR Analytic Services
 * Copyright Permissions

MANAGE MY ACCOUNT

 * My Library
 * Topic Feeds
 * Orders
 * Account Settings
 * Email Preferences
 * Account FAQ
 * Help Center
 * Contact Customer Service

FOLLOW HBR

 * Facebook
 * X Corp.
 * LinkedIn
 * Instagram
 * Your Newsreader

 * About Us
 * Careers
 * Privacy Policy
 * Cookie Policy
 * Copyright Information
 * Trademark Policy
 * Terms of Use


Harvard Business Publishing:
 * Higher Education
 * Corporate Learning
 * Harvard Business Review
 * Harvard Business School

Copyright © 2024  Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.
Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School.