- Harvard Business Review
In the 1990s, Professor Amy Edmondson (Harvard Business School) made a bizarre observation. Her research indicated that the best-performing medical teams actually reported more errors than the worse-performing teams. A mystery!
What did further research reveal? The best-performing teams are psychologically safe: they are more open and allow employees to share mistakes without fear. It was not that high-performing teams make more mistakes, but rather that they dare to report them. (*)
In 2012, Google conducted a major research project (under the name Aristotle) to find out why some teams perform better in the workplace than others. The conclusion was clear: not only is psychological safety the most important factor in a team's success, it also underpins the other factors that cause success!(*)
Psychological safety is the most important characteristic of teams that perform well.
It improves:
Psychological safety allows a culture of learning to develop at work. Making mistakes are then simply a part of learning, as is receiving constructive feedback.
Type: Possible as
1 day, in your organisation
2 half days (each 3 hours), via Zoom
max. 12 participants
no dates at present
Prefer to contact us by phone? No problem. Simply fill in your details below or call us at +32 494 75 10 62.
After the training, you will be able to:
describe what psychological safety is and why it is important.
name the factors that undermine psychological safety.
analyse the factors that promote psychological safety.
develop a strategy to strengthen psychological safety in your team.
The definition of psychological safety
The difference between psychological safety and related concepts such as trust
The relationship between psychological safety and performance
Examples of learning behaviour
Benefits of psychological safety
Factors that undermine psychological safety
Factors that promote psychological safety
Strategies leaders can apply to promote psychological safety in their team
Strategies leading organisations apply to promote psychological safety
How can you translate these insights to your own organisation?
