Over the last eighteen months or so, I have been working with my clients on this concept of psychological safety. It is not a new idea; in fact, it was first mentioned by leadership gurus, Edgar H. Schein and Warren Bennis in the 1960s. In 1990, Warren Kahn renewed interest in the concept when he described psychological safety as the ability for someone to “employ or express themselves physically, cognitively, and emotionally.” It was right around this time that Toyota and other companies began looking at progressive management paradigms such as safety culture. In 1999, Dr. Amy Edmonson (now at Harvard) was studying teams and the number of mistakes that different teams made. During her research she was surprised to find that the teams with a higher number of good outcomes actually made more mistakes than teams with fewer good outcomes. It was a surprising result, but after further investigation, she discovered that in fact those teams with better outcomes were admitting more mistakes, while the teams with fewer good outcomes were more likely to hide theirs. As a result, Dr. Edmondson formulated her concept of psychological safety, namely: “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” Over the years, Dr. Edmondson has shown that psychological safety was a key factor in team performance, and continues to lead the field in expounding the importance of psychological safety in all fields of work and life.
So, why do I take the time to reflect on the history of this concept? Because I see this phrase being used and mis-used in the discussion around work and culture. In a future post, I will share some of the amazing success stories and challenges faced by my clients and others in acting on this concept of psychological safety. In the meantime, do you think you are psychologically safe in your work environment? How would you define psychological safety for yourself and your colleagues?
