Is Psychological Safety Important?
Psychological safety is important as it creates a work environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks, sharing ideas, and providing feedback without fear of negative consequences. This leads to better decision making, improved performance, and increased innovation.
But why?
When we are in a state of distrust, the world feels threatening. Threats make us retreat. They make us feel we need to protect. We are more sensitive to feeling wrong, or feeling embarrassed, and we behave differently. Neuroscientists say that high levels of threat give us an “Amygdala Hijack,” which is when fear networks are activated in our brains and we “fight, flee, freeze, or appease others.”
If the interaction feels safe and positive, we produce more oxytocin and dopamine. These neurotransmitters help us relax, feel open to others, and create a state of trust. Our Prefrontal Cortex opens up and we have access to empathy, judgment and higher decision making, and innovation capabilities. Our heart beats at a more coherent rate and we connect with others more deeply.
When employees feel safe, they are more likely to speak up, share their ideas and ask questions, this leads to better problem-solving, more diverse perspectives, and a more collaborative and productive work culture.
Additionally, psychological safety is linked to employee well-being and mental health. When employees feel safe, they are less likely to experience stress and burnout, which can lead to improved job satisfaction and retention.
Project Aristotle
Google researchers wanted to discover the secrets of effective teams at Google.
Code-named Project Aristotle – a tribute to Aristotle’s quote, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” (as the Google researchers believed employees can do more working together than alone) – the goal was to answer the question: “What makes a team effective at Google?”
The researchers found that what really mattered was less about who is on the team, and more about how the team worked together. In order of importance: 1. Psychological Safety 2. Dependability 3. Structure and Clarity 4. Meaning and 5. Impact.
Mapping Psychological Safety with Accountability
Amy Edmondson initially mapped Psychological Safety and Accountability on the same axis in that you can have one or the other. However, this is not the case! Check out Amy’s amazing Tedx talk on “Building a psychologically safe workplace” below. Skip to 9:00m to discover the relationship between accountability and psychological safety.
Psychological Safey in Agile Teams
In an Agile environment, where continuous improvement and learning is the norm, psychological safety is crucial to support team members to take risks and experiment with new solutions, it also supports team members to learn from their mistakes and improve their processes.
In summary, psychological safety is important because it promotes better decision-making, improved performance, increased innovation, better problem-solving, more diverse perspectives, collaboration, productivity, employee well-being and job satisfaction, and employee retention.
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