Psychological safety

How does psychological safety boost team performance?

Extensive research revealed that psychological safety, through three critical mechanisms, enables team members to act in ways that help the team successfully accomplish their work.

1

INDIVIDUAL, GROUP, & ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING

Learning behaviours, such as asking questions and seeking feedback, can be limited by individual concerns about interpersonal risks, such as fear of being judged, embarassment, and learning anxiety created by feelings of incompetence.

2

DECISION MAKING & CREATIVITY

In highly uncertain situations and when there is high need for creativity, a team that enables exploratory communication is necessary for increasing the number of high quality ideas and better decision making.

3

SPEAKING UP

Upward communication with authorities, suggesting ways to improve work practices, and expressing concerns about existing practices or behaviours that may harm the organisation might be a crucial factor for an organisation to prosper.

Findings show that psychological safety promotes team learning – interpersonal interactions between highly interdependent members that are neccesary for both learning and exchanging information.

Psychological safety increases the motivation to engage in creative thinking and risk taking, which supports the number of ideas and proposals in times of uncertainty and innovation.

Extensive research has shown that speaking up usually feels risky. Studies however show direct positive effect of psychological safety on speaking up.
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