Psychological Safety: Take A Risk With No Penalty Or Punishment

Forbes

17-07-2025

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As mentioned previously in this column, we are most effective when we talk so other people will listen and when we listen so other people will talk. And not necessarily in that order.
Call it whatever you wish, but people get along better and produce superior results in an atmosphere of psychological safety.
Dr. Amy Edmondson is a renowned expert in that very subject. She's a leadership professor at Harvard Business School and the author of seven excellent books and many dozens of case studies and academic articles. Her pioneering work on psychological safety has helped spawn an impressive body of academic research in management, healthcare, and education.
You want to learn more about psychological safety? Amy Edmondson is a prime resource.
One of her early research papers had the provocative title of 'Learning from Mistakes is Easier Said Than Done.' It focused on error rates of hospital medical teams.
Dr. Amy Edmondson
'The better teams had higher error rates, not lower rates, than other teams,' Edmondson says. 'This seemed counterintuitive. Then we identified the underlying cause. The better teams didn't make more mistakes than others, they were simply more willing to report them. They felt a sense of psychological safety that enabled them to talk about and learn from their errors. That's why they were the better teams.'
Edmondson quotes Winston Churchill as saying, 'Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.'
She talks about 'failing well'—which requires a willingness to tolerate failure when we're exploring new territory. She's not referring to errors that could be catastrophic or reputationally harmful. It's about smart risk taking, she says. It's about preventing preventable failures. For example, don't mix up the sugar and the salt when you're baking.
So called 'best practices,' Edmondson says, are the result of pioneers being willing to fail well.
One common misconception about psychological safety, she says, is that it's just about being 'nice' or having people feel comfortable all the time. 'Learning can be uncomfortable,' she says. 'Honest feedback can be uncomfortable. Acknowledging and talking about mistakes can be uncomfortable. Psychological safety is not about always getting your way. It's about feeling free to speak up candidly, even if your ideas are not always accepted by others.'
Edmondson says that in today's world 'we are only one high quality conversation away from success or failure. If we don't have those conversations, we're at risk. If we do have them, we're much better off.'
What is her advice to first-time team leaders who are determined to help their people thrive in the workplace?
'Show up as a learner,' she says. 'Show up curious. Show up passionate about the opportunities the team has, but equally passionate about inviting other voices in the discussion. That mindset and behavior will enable others to being their best thinking to the table.'
Psychological safety: it's the confidence that you can take a risk without being penalized or punished.