Why Psychological Safety isn't a 'Nice to Have'

There’s still a school of thought, in some boardrooms and senior leadership meeting rooms, that psychological safety is a ‘nice to have’ within the workforce. The reality is quite different.?

Over the last 15 years, psychological safety has emerged as a critical factor in organisational success. Amy Edmondson is the leading researcher in this field and she defines psychological safety as the knowledge that you can speak up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without fear of repercussion.

In short, it’s how the environment - and the people within it - react when the status quo is challenged. As this is often not considered to be normal business practice, it’s difficult for leaders to understand how to build this into their culture. So I thought I would break down how to do it and why it’s so important.

Building Psychological Safety

Creating psychological safety isn't a one-time initiative but rather something that needs to be continually worked on by all people managers within an organisation. Research identifies four key elements for building psychological safety:

1 Fallibility: Leaders who admit mistakes and acknowledge their limitations create an environment where others feel safe to do the same.

This is important as it sends the message to employees that even the people at the top of the organisation are human and can’t get everything right all of the time. This is about leaders saying ‘I might not have all the answers here and could get this wrong’.

2 Accessibility: Being approachable and available increases information sharing and collective learning.

This is important as it reduces the invisible layers between employees at different points in the hierarchy, which increases the ability to be honest and open. This is about leaders saying ‘I’m here to listen and I value your opinion’.

3 Vulnerability: Framing failures as learning opportunities removes the stigma of blame and encourages risk-taking.

This is important as it reduces the fear that people have that they will be blamed. This generates the often talked about culture of asking for forgiveness not permission. This is about leaders saying ‘There’s no blame here, only learning for the future’.

4 Accountability: Clear boundaries provide the framework within which team members can safely raise issues without fear of appearing ignorant or negative.

This is important as it makes it clear who owns what and ensures that there is commitment to uphold standards and contribute to achieving the team’s goals. This is about leaders saying ‘I will provide feedback to help us to achieve this’.

When leaders and managers are able to demonstrate these four elements on a daily basis it creates the foundations for others to share information, try out different ideas, take more calculated risks and work together better to safeguard the quality of their work.

This means leaders making different decisions about how their time is spent and the conversations that they have. Less time in meetings, more time spent listening. Less time telling people what to do, more time spent empowering them to do it. Less time spent at a desk, more time spent in the field to gain a better understanding of how work happens, and so on.

Too often, leaders will conform to existing cultural norms, then wonder why employees don’t feel ‘safe’ to try something different. As with most things related to culture, if it’s role-modelled from the top of the organisation, it’s demonstrated at the middle and the bottom.

Benefits of Psychological Safety

But why invest time and effort in developing a different approach? Many leaders still need the numbers and I understand that. However, at some stage, the need for evidence has to stop and courage has to be shown in adopting a new way of thinking and working. The key benefits of adopting these new ways are as follows:

• Employee Engagement increases by 31% when employees feel safe to be themselves at work
• Productivity increases by 12% as employees feel more empowered to do what they need to do and choose how to do it
• Quality increases by 41% due to employees being more willing to report errors and engage in process improvement
• Employee Retention is improved as safe cultures see a 27% reduction in turnover
• Communication improves as teams are 89% more likely to report mistakes early
• Collaboration also improves by 76% as information sharing between team members becomes easier
• Innovation, endlessly coveted by organisations around the world, flourishes in safe environments, who see a 67% increase in the behaviours required to be creative
• Learning, as you would expect, is also greatly improved with teams learning from failure 74% faster than those in low safety environments.

Overall Business Impact

The actions are straightforward, the internal benefits easy to see, but the business case for adopting a more psychologically safe environment goes even further. Organisations see a 24% higher customer satisfaction score when operating in psychologically safe service environments. They're also 3.8 times more likely to capture valuable market intelligence from front-line employees, creating a significant competitive advantage.

The evidence is clear: psychological safety isn't just a "nice to have" – it's a business imperative. From improved innovation and productivity to better employee retention and customer satisfaction, the benefits of creating a psychologically safe workplace are both comprehensive and compelling. In an era where competitive advantage often comes from how well organisations can learn, adapt, and innovate, psychological safety may be the most important investment a company can make in its future success.

In my experience, the biggest challenge for leaders is in overcoming their aversion to the term ‘psychological safety’, but this they must do if they want to achieve the results that come with employees feeling safe to speak up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes without fear of repercussions.

Safe cultures beat fearful ones every day. Which do you prefer?