Workshop Trends

Psychological safety is the belief that one can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation in a workplace. It is a condition in which individuals feel included, safe to learn, safe to contribute, and safe to challenge the status quo without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished. Organizational behavioral scientist Amy Edmondson of Harvard introduced the construct of team psychological safety, which is a shared belief in the group's safety that one can be vulnerable and take risks without being punished. Psychological safety is critical in creating an environment that encourages adaptive, innovative performance in a workplace. It allows team members to feel accepted and respected while sharing their ideas, opinions, and thoughts freely. Creating psychological safety involves acknowledging one's own fallibility, treating everything as an experiment, and creating a learning problem rather than an execution problem. In summary, psychological safety refers to the trust between team members in which they can take risks, innovate, and make mistakes without the fear of repercussions or punishment.