Psychological safety

Google tasked a research team with finding out why some Google teams are much more effective than others.

The research team concluded that one of the contributing factors was the ‘psychological safety’ of the group. It is a term they borrowed from Harvard business professor Amy Edmondson and the Google research team defined it as:

” ‘Psychological safety’ refers to an individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is safe for risk taking in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative or disruptive. In a team with high psychological safety. teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone for admitting a mistake, asking a question or offering a new idea.”

After I read that it made total sense to me. Of course psychological safety plays a factor. It could be the number one factor.

You can see it in groups across all walks of life.

I feel safer telling a joke in one Whatsapp group over another.

I prefer playing for one tag rugby team over another because I’m less likely to get lambasted for tiny mistakes.

It’s much easier to perform better when you feel like you can take some risks, when you feel that your teammates have got your back and when you feel you’re in a safe space.