Psychological Safety at Work

The highest-performing teams have one thing in common: a culture of psychological safety. This is not just a feel-good buzzword, it’s essential to innovation and employee health. But what does this mean exactly, and how do you build it?

In a Psychological Safety at Work environment, employees can be their full selves at work. They can ask questions and share ideas without fear of negative repercussions, which allows them to experiment with new strategies and make mistakes. They also trust that they will be supported through these challenges, and that leaders will have their backs if they don’t meet expectations or experience performance setbacks.

Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson coined the term “psychological safety” to describe a shared belief among team members that the workplace is safe for interpersonal risk taking. This means that everyone feels free to brainstorm out loud, share half-finished thoughts, speak up when they disagree with the status quo, surface difficult issues and be vulnerable in front of colleagues.

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Leaders that demonstrate vulnerability and encourage healthy failure tolerance are key to creating a psychologically safe environment. For example, at Ryan LLC, a tax services and software provider, mandatory training sessions include discussions about well-being, psychological safety and setting boundaries. These discussions are led by leaders who share their own experiences of making mistakes and not having all the answers.

Of course, harassment is one of the most obvious forms of unsafe behavior in the workplace. But other subtle threats to psychological safety include microaggressions, gaslighting and lack of communication. While many leaders know that they should be addressing these behaviors, they may not realize that their own actions or attitudes are contributing to a toxic workplace.