Psychological safety is an essential foundational component for innovation, divergent thinking, creativity, & risk-taking — but it should not be confused with comfort. There are a number of small behaviours leaders can cultivate to help their teams take more interpersonal risks to increase psychological safety.

1. Psychological safety: an overlooked
secret to organizational performance
Psychological safety is an essential foundational component for innovation,
divergent thinking, creativity, & risk-taking — but it should not be confused
with comfort. There are a number of small behaviours leaders can cultivate
to help their teams take more interpersonal risks to increase psychological
safety.
Have you ever worked on a team with low psychological safety? How about with high
psychological safety? Chances are you could probably answer these questions
without even knowing the full definition of this concept.
We have worked in both situations, & the differences in effectiveness are stark. We
have been part of teams that came together rapidly, agreed on a common
understanding of next steps (though it took challenging conversations to come to
agreement), executed flawlessly & then disbanded and moved on to other initiatives.
Equally vivid are memories of teams where communication did not flow, trust
between team members was low, clarity was lacking, people held back in sharing
ideas & opinions, & the teams therefore struggled to meet expected deliverables &
deadlines.
Underneath it all ran the thread of psychological safety, which is defined by Amy
Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership & Management at the Harvard
Business School & author of “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological

2. Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth,” as a shared belief
held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.
Psychological safety is the why behind our responses to the questions, “Can I speak
up? Will I be punished or ridiculed for sharing my opinion? Can I be honest about
who I am, & my perspective?” If you respond “no” to one or more of these questions,
there is a good chance that there is a lack of sufficient psychological safety on that
team. If you respond “yes” to all, could you say the same for every member of the
teams in your organization?
Psychological safety is an essential foundational component for innovation, divergent
thinking, creativity, & risk-taking. At the same time, it should not be confused with
comfort. Teams that are comfortable are less likely to take risks for fear of disrupting
the current status quo, which then ultimately decreases the sense of psychological
safety. Team members need to feel safe enough to speak up while also
acknowledging a productive level of discomfort that pushes them toward growth &
progress. As Google learned during Project Aristotle, having a team of superstars did
not guarantee the team would be high-functioning. Teams also needed the right
levels of psychological safety to build momentum & bring their ideas to life.
When we share this insight with leaders with whom we work to make the case that
time spent on increasing psychological safety will produce a significant return on
investment, there is uniform head-nodding & at least a vague commitment to make
psychological safety a higher priority. Unless there is intentional intervention,
however, little or no progress is made because leaders are not sure how to cultivate
psychological safety or think the effort is too daunting.
In these instances, leaders who truly want to cultivate psychological safety would be
wise to draw on one of George Washington’s oft-cited Scottish maxims, “Many a
mickle makes a muckle” (i.e., the accumulation of small amounts of something that
over time becomes a large amount), which is echoed by recent research around tiny
habits, The Progress Principle, small wins & atomic habits. Once small behaviours or
habits begin to accumulate, they build on each other. Likewise, once leaders focus
their attention on increasing psychological safety in small ways, the accumulation of
those small behaviours across teams can lead to transformational changes at the
organizational level.
As a result, when we see head-nodding around the importance of psychological
safety, we then strive to gain head-nodding about small behaviours that leaders can
cultivate to help their teams take more interpersonal risks to increase psychological
safety. How do we do that?
Small steps toward psychological safety
One tactical method that the Centre for Creative Leadership uses involves asking
each team member to publicly share their responses to the sentence completion
exercise: “I will …” & “We should ….” By recording these statements, having
transparent public commitments to act, establishing accountability partners, &
building in “nudges” to prompt follow-up, we have found that leaders are more
successful in leading their teams & organizations down the path of increasing
psychological safety.

3. A second potential source of inspiration is the Agile method of creating Scrum
teams. The first value of the Agile manifesto is “Individuals & interactions over
processes & tools,” which acknowledges that organizations & teams are made up of
human systems. The five values of a Scrum team are focus, courage, openness,
commitment & respect, & the three pillars of Scrum are transparency, inspection &
adaptation. Better teams have a climate of openness that allows them to discuss &
learn from failures. Scrum teams assign a person responsible for upholding these
values & creating transparency. The Scrum Master is considered a servant leader for
the team. They are not the team leader, nor do they have reporting responsibility for
any team members, nor any accountability for the final output. The Scrum Master is
responsible for promoting & supporting the right team environment, including
managing & changing interpersonal interactions (nudges) to create transparency &
maximize the value created by the team, thereby working to build & maintain a
psychologically safe environment.
The onset of COVID-19 has taught us the value of responding in an agile manner to
change & transform, & as we reflect on the successes of the many organizational
responses, the values & pillars of psychologically safe Scrum teams offer a
framework to understand how to create a team climate that focuses on learning from
failure, building inclusion & demonstrating transparency.
Third, because sustaining psychological safety requires constant attention &
nurturing as it is a state more than it is a trait, leaders & team members need to be
vigilant in attending to conditions that lower & raise interpersonal fear. In an era in
which issues around diversity, equity and inclusion have taken centre stage, leaders
must understand that having high levels of psychological safety is a prerequisite to
achieving a truly inclusive culture, especially one that embraces the importance of
diversity & elevates equity to a high priority. Indeed, the tough issues embedded in
DEI can only be effectively raised when employees are not operating in a state of
interpersonal fear of speaking about their lived experiences.
A lesson from Scrum teams demonstrates the necessity & value of implementing tiny
habits that support building toward an inclusive team climate. For example, assigning
someone the role of facilitating team interactions with the goal of being mindful about
creating space for team members to speak openly about failures can support a
psychologically safe team environment. While everyone on the team must be
responsible for fostering an inclusive culture, the leader can pave the way by
demonstrating vulnerability through sharing stories & inviting others to do the same.
Fourth, & most important, in seeking to build psychological safety we need to be
willing to stop & reflect on how we are doing. Working in sprints, or small bursts with
planned pauses for reflection, builds the habit of continually inspecting the way we
work. Building an effective balance of productive discomfort & safety requires
constant practice & vigilance. Once these habits are built & solidified in individual &
team behaviour, teams & organizations will be able to make progress against
extraordinary outcomes.
As 2020 — the year of reinvention — has shown us, the presence or lack of
psychological safety can be the make-or-break factor for necessary transformation.

4. Joanne Dias, M.A., is a leadership solutions partner at the Center for Creative
Leadership, where she designs & delivers customized leadership programs for
leaders within global organizations. Joanne has developed & launched assessment
& development centers in 12-plus countries & facilitated organizational change
initiatives & trainings for individuals, cross-functional & executive teams. David
Altman, Ph.D., is the chief operating officer at the Center for Creative Leadership. He
previously led the CCL global research & innovation group & the Europe, Middle
East & Africa region. He is involved in delivering leadership programs globally. To
comment, email editor@clomedia.com. Joanne Dias, David Altman December 1, 2020