Getting Psychological Safety

We live in amazing times when we can all feel the swell rising on the topic of being human and being real at work in order to realize the promise of technology. At long last, the concepts of “employee satisfaction” and “engagement” are more than overused words on strategy decks and empty HR promises, but are proven to be the foundation of what makes the Silicon Valley darlings successful, so we are starting to blissfully deconstruct them into actionable levers of change and of them, Psychological Safety is the most comprehensible and actionable one. 

One of my favorite things to do over the last year and a half with Psychological Safety has been to observe when (and sadly, in extreme cases “if”) people resonate with the concept.

Any time I start explaining what our solution does and why we’ve built it, I have to start at the definition of Psychological Safety and with the many times, I’ve said it I’ve tested many a formulation. 

Ranging from

“(…) Being able to show and employ one's self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career" (Kahn 1990)

to

“Psychological Safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking” Prof. Dr. Amy Edmondson 

to ultimately:

“A Psychologically Safe team is one that feels like family and moves mountains together. Think back of the last time you made some magic with the team, how you were open and debated and were vulnerable and learning, creating and getting stuff done. That well-oiled machine that felt fun to be a part of. That was Psychologically Safe.” PeopleNotTech 2019 (;)

I’ve learned that if you find the right words that mean the most, then you’re the closest to having the split second of intense recognition when things click in the eyes of your dialogue partner and they “get it”. Typically it’s when they manage to personally relate. It all depends on their own work climate and how far removed they are from the last time they were fortunate enough to have really worked in a team and have experienced this elusive sense of Psychological Safety. 

One of the reasons why I’m pleased we chose to bootstrap PeopleNotTech is because when you say it to VCs, you have to dehumanize it and reframe from the lenses of productivity only. It isn’t unconnected, of course. Far from it. Ultimately, at the end of the day, none of our focus on people and how to make them be a true team and be their best, ought to ever be decoupled from business itself and that ought to go for whoever speaks of any employee-related topic if they are seriously wanting to see change and not simply engaging in a demagogical exercise.

Nonetheless, with a topic as loaded as Psychological Safety that balance between the exclusively heartfelt and the exclusively P&L connected is an interesting one to strike. 

When we speak to clients though, before they can contemplate how transformative it can be for their enterprise, they need to understand how important it is to their own team first and to do that, they need to comprehend it. Get it. Remember feeling it.

A few are fortunate enough to immediately click. That’s a sign they are likely currently in a team that’s high performing and is fairly Psychologically Safe. The bashful smile of someone experiencing it currently and the generous openness to talk about it and see how they can bring it to others is unmistakable. Almost akin to when you speak about romantic love to someone who is currently happily in a blissful relationship and wants the rest of humankind to be equally happy. 

A few never do. When the short version heartfelt explanation falls on death ears and then the scientifically one makes sense but not enough to “click” and further on, the explanation of the research of greats like Khan and Dr. Edmondson and the concrete logical examples of teams in the medical field or aviation needing to have PS do little to clarify it, the only weapon left is to describe Google’s Project Aristotle and how it places Psychological Safety as the sine qua non condition of success. Then you’ll see a shift of acceptance if not recognition. 

When the State of DevOps report came out a few weeks ago and made it a subtle but efficient point to place Psychological Safety at the top of any boxed diagram of productivity and organizational health I was personally ecstatic as it would add to the arsenal. In fact, they explicitly say they set out to add to the Google example and demonstrate that doesn’t only apply in their environment. Which is great both as a supportive data point and because it shows they have had hands-on experience with explaining the concept where they were challenged with that potential objection of it being the case in project Aristotle because Google “is special”. Which they show not to be the case. Psychological Safety is a necessity for any kind of team, anywhere. 

The reality is that those diagrams will do little to bring the point home to those who won’t get it and that they don’t because they haven’t been fortunate enough to ever have experienced it, and it’s only when that realization hit me that I have started to be a lot more forgiving and compassionate about the lack of recognition. 

The vast majority of us may need some coaxing and a variety of examples but eventually, we all resonate with the idea. It is so beautifully imprinted in the very DNA of the concept of a team, that it makes perfect intuitive and experiential sense once explained. If we have ever been in a “real” team we know it creates magic. Working together when everything resonates and everyone wants the same things while caring about each other and being open and trusting is an incredible feeling that we know powers our greatest achievements. Any time we’ve done anything worthwhile professionally it would have been because we were a real team that had Psychological Safety. We were family. 

Having our hands full understanding our first few enterprise clients in terms of the best ways to roll this out and transform the lives of their employees and designing the Emotional Intelligence Trainer while speaking about the concepts all over the world, it makes it a bit harder to stop and think but this today is about who resonates with the concept while on the thinking backlog I will soon like us all - counting on the comments and the dialogue!- to debate the concepts of “Team vs Family”, the “Ted Baker Hug Trap” and Political Correctness, the perception of the organisation’s/management’s intentionality and a number of other heavy topics we need to get to dissecting to move this ticket of “change the way we work by creating really psychologically safe teams”

For now, consider this an open question and a poll even if you don’t share your answers: how long did it take you to get what Psychological Safety was? Did it instantly click and the light went on, did it take a while because it’s been forever since you felt it or are you still only intellectually comprehending it and haven’t yet resonated? How is your team doing? Are you in one?