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Abstract: This article examines the research behind psychological safety and provides practical recommendations for how leaders can cultivate it within their teams. Psychological safety refers to shared beliefs among team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking and idea sharing. Studies show that psychological safety positively impacts team innovation, collaboration, learning, and performance. However, few organizations consistently foster it. The article discusses the origin and key findings of psychological safety research, including Edmondson's early work and follow-up studies showing its relationship to various organizational outcomes. It then offers advice for leaders, such as modeling vulnerability, focusing on growth over blame, promoting inclusive decision-making, providing constructive feedback, and celebrating learning from failures. Industry examples from Netflix, Google, and Southwest Airlines illustrate how applying these practices helps maintain psychological safety. The article argues that proactive leadership is needed to establish psychological safety as a sustainable norm that allows teams to thrive and reach their highest potential.
For teams to perform at their highest potential, they must feel safe taking interpersonal risks such as sharing new ideas, asking for help when needed, and admitting mistakes. This environment of trust and mutual respect where people feel comfortable being vulnerable is known as psychological safety. While the concept of psychological safety seems intuitive, research indicates that few organizations consistently foster it within their teams. However, creating psychological safety has significant organizational impacts, as it allows teams to be more innovative, collaborative, and productive.
Today we will examine the research behind psychological safety and provide practical recommendations for how leaders can cultivate it within their teams.
Research Foundation for Psychological Safety
Psychological safety refers to shared beliefs held by team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking (Edmondson, 1999). The concept originated from research conducted by Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School, who studied how psychological safety impacted team learning and performance. In multiple qualitative and quantitative studies across various industries, Edmondson found psychological safety to be a key factor enabling teams to feel comfortable experimenting with new ideas, suggesting process changes openly, and questioning the status quo without fear of punishment or ridicule (Edmondson, 1999, 2002, 2004).
Subsequent research has reinforced Edmondson's initial findings and further explored the impacts of psychological safety. For example, Google conducted its own internal research which highlighted psychological safety as the most important factor determining team effectiveness (Duhigg, 2016). Additional studies across industries show psychological safety positively correlates with increased team innovation (Carmeli & Gittell, 2009), collaboration (Frazier et al., 2017), learning and improvement (Edmondson & Lei, 2014), and overall performance outcomes including productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction (Frazier et al., 2017; Bradley et al., 2012).
Conversely, a lack of psychological safety has detrimental organizational effects. When people worry more about protecting their image or status within a team rather than focusing on the task at hand, it inhibits speaking up with new ideas, surfacing mistakes or gaps, and asking for help (Rock & Tang, 2009). This stifles learning and improvement while increasing the risks of project failures and quality issues going unaddressed. Simply put, psychological safety is critical for allowing teams to function optimally and reach their highest potential.
Practical Recommendations for Leaders
While psychological safety has been shown to positively impact organizations, cultivating it requires proactive focus and effort from leadership. The following recommendations provide a framework for leaders seeking to foster an environment of trust, respect, and interpersonal risk-taking within their teams:
Model Vulnerability as a Leader - Leaders must "walk the walk" by being the first to admit mistakes, surface weaknesses, and view struggles as learning opportunities rather than failures. This sets the tone that being imperfect is acceptable and encourages others to follow their example.
Focus on Growth, not Blame - Shifting team conversations from finger-pointing over who is at fault to collaborative problem-solving focused on system improvements builds psychological safety. Leaders who inquire about causes versus accusing boosts people's willingness to surface issues.
Promote InclusiveDecision Making - A few select voices dominating decisions threatens psychological safety. Leaders who actively solicit input from all team members via techniques like democratic voting foster greater involvement and buy-in.
Provide Constructive Feedback - Criticism feels less threatening when coupled with specific examples of what someone did well and areas for development versus negative feedback alone. Leaders coaching with compassion boosts morale.
Celebrate Learning from Failures - Rather than ignoring or hiding setbacks, spotlighting lessons learned from mistakes, dead-ends explored, and risks attempted illustrates failures as learning steps. This refocuses people on progress over perfection.
Clarify Team Norms - Especially with new teams, openly discuss expectations like being respectful of different views, willingness to re-examine assumptions, and preferences for direct yet considerate communication. Alignment on ground rules promotes predictability and comfort.
Solicit Anonymous Feedback - Periodically survey team members confidentially using tools like suggestion boxes or online questionnaires to surface any risks to psychological safety like favoritism or exclusionary behaviors. Addressing issues early prevents escalation.
Express Appreciation Visibly - Small acts like handwritten thank you notes or verbal recognition of people's efforts and contributions displayed where the entire team sees fosters mutual care, respect and belonging essential for feeling empowered to be vulnerable.
These leadership tactics help maintain psychological safety as teams evolve by continually reinforcing trust, mutual understanding and psychological comfort. With focus, psychological safety becomes part of a team’s operating norms versus something that fluctuates based on circumstance. The following industry examples illustrate this in practice.
Organizational Industry Examples
At Netflix, seen as a pioneer in fostering psychological safety, leaders actively solicit anonymous feedback and air all viewpoints to encourage new perspectives (Friedman, 2019). This openness led to innovations like its recommendation algorithm changes and allows experimentation with branching stories. Focusing on learning over blame also enabled the team behind 13 Reasons Why to have proactive discussions about portraying sensitive topics responsibly.
At Google, psychological safety plays a key role in innovations like Search and Gmail emerging from internal 20% experimental projects. Leader support for these "moonshots" lowers risks of speaking up with bold ideas. Google also conducts anonymous team health surveys to keep psychological safety a constant priority (Duhigg, 2016).
At Southwest Airlines, psychological safety helps the customer service team maintain its reputation as the friendliest airline. Leaders spend time on the front lines, listen without judgment to solicit ideas, and celebrate employee efforts to provide hospitality. This fosters continual improvements in hospitality like personalized greetings and humor (Shaw, 2013).
Conclusion
Fostering psychological safety within teams requires intentional leadership focus to cultivate trust, respect and comfort taking interpersonal risks. While the concept seems intuitive, research shows too few organizations prioritize it in practice. However, creating an environment where people feel safe being vulnerable has significant impacts on team performance outcomes like innovation, collaboration, and learning capabilities. Leaders who incorporate recommendations such as modeling vulnerability, promoting inclusive decision making, clarifying norms, and celebrating failures enable teams to reach their highest levels of effectiveness. With proactive effort, psychological safety becomes a sustainable part of organizational culture versus something subject to circumstances. Overall, high-performing teams need psychological safety to thrive - and leaders play an essential role in making it a reality.
References
Bradley, B. H., Postlethwaite, B. E., Klotz, A. C., Hamdani, M. R., & Brown, K. G. (2012). Reaping the benefits of task conflict in teams: The critical role of team psychological safety climate. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(1), 151–158. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0024200
Carmeli, A., & Gittell, J. H. (2009). High‐quality relationships, psychological safety, and learning from failures in work organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 30(6), 709-729. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.565
Duhigg, C. (2016, February 25). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times Magazine. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/magazine/what-google-learned-from-its-quest-to-build-the-perfect-team.html
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Edmondson, A. C. (2002). The local and variegated nature of learning in organizations: A group-level perspective. Organization Science, 13(2), 128-146. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.2.128.530
Edmondson, A. C. (2004). Psychological safety, trust, and learning in organizations: A group-level lens. In R. M. Kramer & K. S. Cook (Eds.), Trust and distrust in organizations: Dilemmas and approaches (pp. 239–272). Russell Sage Foundation.
Edmondson, A. C., & Lei, Z. (2014). Psychological safety: The history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 23-43. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305
Frazier, M. L., Fainshmidt, S., Klinger, R. L., Pezeshkan, A., & Vracheva, V. (2017). Psychological safety: A meta‐analytic review and extension. Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 113-165. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12183
Friedman, T. L. (2019, October 17). How to build a perfect company. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/17/opinion/human-capital-netflix-culture.html
Rock, D., & Tang, Y. (2009). Quiet talks: Shut down “loud” behavior to improve workplace communication. Leadership Excellence, 26(10), 17-18.
Shaw, G. (2013). How Southwest Airlines changed the industry—and changed lives. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/10/how-southwest-airlines-changed
Additional Reading
Westover, J. H. (2024). Optimizing Organizations: Reinvention through People, Adapted Mindsets, and the Dynamics of Change. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.3
Westover, J. H. (2024). Reinventing Leadership: People-Centered Strategies for Empowering Organizational Change. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.4
Westover, J. H. (2024). Cultivating Engagement: Mastering Inclusive Leadership, Culture Change, and Data-Informed Decision Making. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.5
Westover, J. H. (2024). Energizing Innovation: Inspiring Peak Performance through Talent, Culture, and Growth. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.6
Westover, J. H. (2024). Championing Performance: Aligning Organizational and Employee Trust, Purpose, and Well-Being. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.7
Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Workforce Evolution: Strategies for Adapting to Changing Human Capital Needs. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.8
Westover, J. H. (2024). Navigating Change: Keys to Organizational Agility, Innovation, and Impact. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.11
Westover, J. H. (2024). Inspiring Purpose: Leading People and Unlocking Human Capacity in the Workplace. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.12
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Cultivating a Culture of Trust: The Key to Unlocking Team Potential. Human Capital Leadership Review, 14(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.14.4.5
