A safe work environment for team members is fundamental for a team’s well-being, open communications, and productivity. Your job as the leader is to create an atmosphere where people are comfortable sharing ideas, pushing back, communicating bad news, and taking calculated risks.
"Safe environments promote risk-taking and innovation."
Amy Edmundson, author and Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, describes psychological safety as “expressing your full self while not fearing repercussions, and it’s a way to hold teammates accountable to agreed-upon terms. For example, if the leadership team agreed to receive feedback from frontline employees two times per week, a high degree of psychological safety would allow someone to say, in front of the boss, ‘We agreed upon this but are not following through.’”
If you’re wondering just how important psychological safety is to teams, consider the findings of Google’s Aristotle project. In 2012, Abeer Dubey, Google’s People Analytics Team manager, led a research project to identify key drivers for a successful team. Researchers initially thought that diversity or a team’s demographics would have the most significant impact. After years of analyzing data and interviews from over 180 teams across the company, they found that psychological safety was the most important factor for team success.
Edmundson developed a 2 x 2 matrix to help understand how psychological safety and performance standards are related, as shown below.
Most people like to stay in their comfort zone. Our brains are wired to minimize change, so the comfort zone is, well, comfortable, and we don’t like change. In this quadrant, most people get along and are friendly but aren’t challenged. I always say, “There’s no growth in the comfort zone.” Companies with cultures of mediocrity tend to have many employees in their comfort zones. Performance standards are low, but they know they probably aren’t going to get fired for it.
"The Comfort Zone breeds mediocrity; growth lies beyond."
In the Anxiety Zone, performance standards are high, but psychological safety is low. People are hesitant to bring new ideas, try new things, or bring bad news to the boss for fear of being berated or chastised in front of others or in private. They don’t want to put themselves at risk. Trust is low on the team and individuals focus on getting their work done with minimal suggestions for improvement or innovation. This is the environment created when a manager focuses solely on getting results at all costs and doesn’t consider the human side of leading.
In the Apathy Zone, both performance standards and psychological safety are low. The individual shows up for work but is checked out at the low end of employee engagement. They are a drain on the team and focus on how to protect themselves versus doing work.
"In the Learning Zone, teams thrive and innovate."
Lastly, there is the Learning Zone, where both performance standards and psychological safety are high. In this zone, employee engagement is high. Team members collaborate, learn, and innovate. They are comfortable sharing ideas and providing constructive feedback to others. This is the environment you want to nourish as a leader.
Which of these four zones do you and your team operate in?
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