Whether you manage your teams remotely or in the office, you should consider psychological safety in the workplace.
What is psychological safety?
This is a relatively new term that recent studies have shown to be important to managing effective teams.
This concept, which comes from the work of Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, means that members feel that the team is a safe environment to take interpersonal risks. In other words, they feel comfortable asking a question or bringing up new ideas because they are confident that other team members won’t embarrass or punish them for making a mistake.
Why is psychological safety in the workplace important?
In 2012, Google conducted a multi-year study to determine what made an effective team. This study was code-named Project Aristotle as a tribute to Aristotle’s quote: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Google researchers believed employees can do more when working together than alone. The goal was to answer the question: What makes a team effective at Google?
They defined effective by using a combination of performance metrics and evaluations by leaders, executives and members. After thousands of interviews and surveys, they found that psychological safety was the most important feature of high-performing teams.
Recommended Reading: To research further psychological safety, you can read these articles by Harvard Business Review and Forbes.
How do you think your teams would score if you measured psychological safety?
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below or get in touch for a one on one conversation.