My talk on what is psychological safety, why is it important, how to build and what is the role of managers in it?

1. PSYCHOLOGICAL
SAFETY
TATHAGAT VARMA
STRATEGY & OPERATIONS, WALMART LABS
DOCTORAL CANDIDATE (EFPM), ISB, HYDERABAD

2. TOPICS
What is
Psychological
Safety?
01
Why do we
need it?
02
How do we
build it in
teams?
03
What is the
role of
managers?
04

3. COLUMBIA SHUTTLE DISASTER, 2003
When asked why by Charlie Gibson in
an ABC news interview, why he didn't
speak up. He said, "I just couldn't do
it." "She," meaning senior manager,
Linda Ham, who was at least two
organizational levels above
Rocha, "was way up here," gesturing
with his hand over his head, "and I
was way down here," gesturing with
his hand near his lap.
https://hstalks.com/t/4035/how-psychological-safety-might-have-prevented-the-/

4. VOLKSWAGEN “DEFEAT DEVICE” SCANDAL, 2008-2015
“A small group
has done damage
to our company.
We need a
climate where
mistakes are not
hidden.”
Really?
https://theconversation.com/where-were-the-whistleblowers-in-the-volkswagen-emissions-scandal-48249

5. WHO KILLED NOKIA? NOKIA DID
Based on the findings of an in-
depth investigation and 76
interviews with top and middle
managers, engineers and
external experts, we find that
this organisational fear was
grounded in a culture of
temperamental leaders and
frightened middle managers,
scared of telling the truth.
https://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/who-killed-nokia-nokia-did-4268

6. SO, WHY DO
THE PEOPLE
NOT SPEAK
UP?

7. IT’S SO EASY TO STAY SILENT!
Building a psychologically safe workplace | Amy Edmondson | TEDxHGSE
https://youtu.be/LhoLuui9gX8

8. WHY SILENCE WINS AGAINST VOICE?
Who Benefits When Benefit
Occurs
Certainty of
Benefit
Voice The organization
and / or its
customers
After some
delay
Low
Silence Oneself Immediately High
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Edmondson

9. SURPRISING
BENEFITS OF
SILENCE?
“NO ONE WAS
EVER FIRED
FOR SILENCE!”
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Ednomdson

10. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?
In order to increase
intellectual friction,
we must reduce
social friction.
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

11. ALARMING GLOBAL STATS!
• A mere 33% of U.S. workers believe their opinions count.
• Increasing psychological safety improves infection control in hospitals.
• An increasing percentage of millennials refuse to work for bosses that don't create psychological
safety.
• In the United States, a student drops out of high school every 26 seconds. Many of these students
drop out as a result of low psychological safety.
• In Australia, 23% of frontline workers report feeling psychological safety versus 45% of higher
income workers.
• The K-12 educational establishment is discovering that a focus on psychological safety is the
best preventive intervention to reduce the risk of school violence.
https://www.leaderfactor.com/the4stagesofpsychologicalsafety

12. POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF IMPROVING
PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY…
Gallup's data reveal that just three in
10 U.S. workers strongly agree that at
work, their opinions seem to count.
However, by moving that ratio to six
in 10 employees, organizations could
realize a 27% reduction in turnover, a
40% reduction in safety incidents and
a 12% increase in productivity.
https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236198/create-culture-psychological-safety.aspx

13. OK, SO HOW TO
DO IT?

14. GOOGLE’S PROJECT ARISTOTLE, 2012
• What makes a team effective at Google?
• Psychological safety: 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 else for admitting a
mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.
https://rework.withgoogle.com/print/guides/5721312655835136/

15. WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY?
“Psychological safety was experienced as feeling able to show and employ
one's self without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or
career. People felt safe in situations in which they trusted that they would
not suffer for their personal engagement.”

16. HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE TEAM PERFORMANCE?
https://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Group_Performance/Edmondson%20Psychological%20safety.pdf

17. …LEADS TO HIGH PERFORMANCE
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Edmondson

18. WHAT DOES PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY MEAN IN
SPECIFIC TERMS?
A condition in which human beings feel
1. included,
2. safe to learn,
3. safe to contribute, and
4. safe to challenge the status quo
all without fear of being embarrassed,
marginalized, or punished in some way.
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

19. SO, HOW DO YOU BUILD IT?
Frame the work as a
learning problem
Acknowledge your
own fallibility.
Model curiosity. Ask a
lot of questions.
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Edmondson

20. REFRAMING
THE WORK
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Ednomdson

21. ACKNOWLEDGING FALLIBILITIES
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Edmondson
I don't know. I need help.
I made a
mistake.
I'm sorry.

22. ASKING
“POWERFUL
QUESTIONS”
From: The Fearless Organization – Amy Ednomdson

23. ASK WORKHORSE
QUESTIONS TO
TRANSFER
CRITICAL
THINKING…
From: Webinar by Timothy Clark

24. 4 STAGES OF
PSYCHOLOGICAL
SAFETY
https://www.leaderfactor.com/the4stagesofpsychologicalsafety
The 4 stages of psychological safety is a
universal pattern that reflects the
natural progression of human needs in
social settings. When teams,
organizations, and social units of all
kinds progress through the four stages,
they create deeply inclusive
environments, accelerate learning,
increase contribution, and stimulate
innovation.

25. 4 STAGES
Four stages of progression:
• Inclusion safety satisfies the basic human need to
connect and belong.
• Learner safety satisfies the basic human need to learn
and grow.
• Contributor safety satisfies the basic human need to
contribute and make a difference.
• Challenger safety satisfies the basic human need to
make things better.
Question: What is required to move up on these four
stages of safeties?
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

26. RESPECT AND PERMISSION
“There’s a natural progression across four developmental
stages based on a combination of respect and permission.
• By respect, I mean the general level of regard and esteem
we give each other. To respect someone is to value and
appreciate them.
• By permission, I mean the permission given to others to
participate as members of a social unit, the degree to
which we allow them to influence us and participate in
what we are doing.
As organizations grant increasing levels of respect and
permission, individuals generally behave in a way that
reflects the level of psychological safety offered to them.”
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

27. FROM INCLUSION TO INNOVATION…
• Ability to innovate is key for
organizations and teams today.
• However, organizations often ignore
lower-level safeties and directly
expect innovation which requires
Challenger Safety.
• Key is to systematically build
inclusion, learner, contributor and
finally challenger safety in order to
bring about ability to innovate the
organizations and teams.
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

28. DANGERS OF IGNORING RESPECT AND PERMISSION…
• Bowling lane and “gutters”
• Paternalism: Team offers respect but very
little permission. Leaders behave like
helicopter parents and benevolent dictators,
telling children not to touch things.
• Exploitation: Team grants permission but
little respect. Leaders attempt to extract
value but not value those who create it. As
an extreme example, it is like slavery or a
sweatshop.
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

29. ROLE OF
MANAGERS…
1. Inclusion safety: Are you prepared to cross the
threshold of inclusion, bridge differences, and
invite others into your society?
2. Learner safety: Are you prepared to encourage
others to learn?
3. Contributor safety: Are you prepared to give
others the autonomy to contribute and deliver
results?
4. Challenger safety: And finally, are you
prepared to cross the threshold of innovation
and provide air cover for others to challenge the
status quo and innovate?”
From: The Four Stages of Psychological Safety - Timothy Clark

30. RECAP