Psychological Safety
Comparative Psychological Safety provides change leaders with the insights they need to create an environment tailored for knowledge workers in an environment of constant change and volatility.
Created by:
Dr. Amy Edmondson
Professor of Leadership and Management Harvard Business School
This assessment is based on the research conducted by Dr. Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School
Dr. Amy Edmondson's groundbreaking research has demonstrated that one of the most important aspects of superior team performance is Psychological Safety.
The notion that a person can speak up without retribution, that their ideas are heard and that employees are empowered to take meaningful action is directly correlated to positive business outcomes such as speed-to-market, quality and customer satisfaction.
A Critical Trait of Team Performance
Dr. Amy Edmondson's research of team performance revealed a profound insight: teams need to feel safe in order to make mistakes. Without the ability to make mistakes - and learn from them - innovation, creativity and inspiration are left unrealized. Google, in a quest to isolate what separated their internal high-performing teams from the rest, backed Dr. Edmondson's research: Psychological Safety is the single most important determinant to success.
The implications are clear: creating an environment in which people feel comfortable to take risks is key to fostering innovative workplaces.
“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes.”
Dr. Amy Edmondson
Sample Questions
Acceptance
In this team, people are never rejected for being different.
Collaboration
It is easy to ask other members of this team for help.
Awareness
Members of this team often raise concerns they have about team plans or decisions.
Constructive Confrontation
In this team, it is easy to discuss difficult issues and problems.
Mutual Respect
Members of this team value and respect each others' contributions.
Information Gathering
This team frequently obtains new information that leads us to make important changes in our plans or work processes.
Risk Taking
It is completely safe to take a risk on this team.
Fear of Retribution
When someone makes a mistake in this team, it is never held against him or her.
Organizational Learning
Problems and errors in this team are always communicated to the appropriate people (whether team members or others) so that action can be taken.
Top Features
Leverage proven, peer-reviewed research to quickly identify where your organization needs attention and initiate a conversation to understand how you can help.
Give your teams a voice - and allow them to express where you can do the most good for your organization.
Gain insights expeditiously - perform analysis at the team, program and organizational levels.
Benchmark the level of Psychological Safety across your teams and organization against other organizations in your industry.
Dr. Amy Edmondson
Professor, Author, Keynote Speaker
Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School.
Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017 and was
honored with the Talent Award in 2017. She studies teaming, psychological safety, and leadership, and her articles have been published in
numerous academic and management outlets, including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Harvard Business
Review and California Management Review.
Her books - Teaming:
How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy (Jossey-Bass, 2012), Teaming to Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
and Extreme Teaming (Emerald, 2017) - explore teamwork in dynamic organizational environments. In
Building the future:
Big teaming for audacious innovation (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), she examines
the challenges and opportunities of teaming across industries to build smart cities.
Her latest book,
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (Wiley, 2008), offers a practical guide for
organizations serious about success in today's business environment.
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