Podcast Summary
Team Psychological Safety: Creating a culture of learning and growth requires team members to feel safe enough to admit mistakes and openly communicate without fear of negative consequences, which managers can foster through open communication and viewing mistakes as opportunities for growth.
Psychological safety is a crucial aspect of high-performing teams. It refers to the shared belief among team members that it's safe to take risks, make mistakes, and openly communicate without fear of negative consequences. This belief leads to a culture of learning and growth, where team members feel confident in expressing their ideas and concerns. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson introduced the concept, emphasizing that it's not just about being nice or comfortable; it's about creating an environment where people feel safe enough to admit mistakes and learn from them. Managers play a significant role in fostering psychological safety on their teams, setting the tone for open communication and creating a culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth rather than reasons for blame or punishment. By focusing on team psychological safety, organizations can improve performance and build a more resilient, innovative workforce.
Psychological safety in teams: Encouraging psychological safety in teams leads to increased engagement, motivation, diverse perspectives, better decision-making, continuous learning, improvement, greater innovation, creativity, and resilience while reducing stress, burnout, and turnover
Psychological safety plays a crucial role in team performance. Teams with psychological safety allow members to speak up without fear of retribution, leading to increased engagement, motivation, and diverse perspectives. This results in better decision-making, continuous learning, and improvement, as well as greater innovation, creativity, and resilience. Conversely, teams without psychological safety can lead to employee stress, burnout, and turnover, negatively impacting team and organizational performance. To assess the degree of psychological safety on your team, use Edmondson's seven-item questionnaire, which includes questions about making mistakes, bringing up problems, accepting differences, and taking risks. Encouraging psychological safety in your team can lead to significant benefits.
Psychological safety in teams: Establishing clear norms, valuing team members, admitting mistakes, and open communication fosters psychological safety, enabling effective collaboration and communication.
Creating psychological safety within a team is crucial for effective communication and collaboration. Team members value and utilize each other's unique skills and talents, and no one intentionally works against each other. Managers can foster psychological safety by establishing clear norms and expectations, making employees feel valued, admitting mistakes, and actively inviting input. Predictability, open communication, and modeling vulnerability are key to creating a safe and supportive environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. Remember, there's no magic wand to create psychological safety, but good management practices can go a long way in helping to build a more psychologically safe climate.
Psychological safety in teams: Leaders can boost psychological safety by being appreciative, curious, and open-minded, allowing team members to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes, leading to continuous learning and improvement.
Creating a psychologically safe team environment is crucial for continuous learning and improvement. If team members feel blamed, embarrassed, or shut down, they may not take risks or share feedback in the future. However, by being appreciative, curious, and open-minded, leaders can boost the chances that team members will feel safe to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes. This psychological safety allows teams to learn from each other and improve, which is essential for future success. As HBR contributing editor Amy Gallo emphasizes, strategies for cultivating psychological safety include being appreciative and curious, and asking good questions that show open-mindedness. Gallo, an expert in workplace conflict and communication, shares her insights on this topic in various HBR articles, podcasts, and her book "Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone, Even Difficult People." To learn more about leadership and management, tune in to the Harvard Business Review podcast and visit hbr.org for articles, case studies, books, and videos with the world's top business and management experts.