The Key to High-Performing Teams: Psychological Safety
For many American workers, the brand name Google has become synonymous with aspirational workplace culture. And there’s data to back up the hype: for years, Google has been at or close to the top in LinkedIn’s internal study1 of the country’s top employers.
What is it about this particular company that allows it to sit above so many others in culture, engagement, and desirability? It’s not just the comp and the lavish benefits, nor the opportunity to share your “Noogler” status on LinkedIn and show your high school classmates that you’ve arrived. The biggest draw, according to job searchers, is Google’s relentless focus on using data and science to support workplace happiness and to promote high-functioning teams.
In 2015, Google’s People Operations team did their own deep dive study2 to find out which factors are most important for creating these high-performing teams. They were surprised to find out that the #1 most influential factor was not diversity of thought, level of education, or work ethic. Instead it was the dark horse of psychological safety.
In this article, we’ll discuss what psychological safety is, why it’s so important (hint: It’s not just about feelings), and we’ll leave with a few “take-home” ideas for how you can increase it in your organization.
References
- Top Companies 2022: The 50 best workplaces to grow your career in the U.S. (n.d.). www.linkedin.com.https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-companies-2022-50-best-workplaces-grow-your-career-us-/
- Rozovsky, J. (2015, November 17). re:Work - the Five Keys to a Successful Google Team. Withgoogle.com.https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/
- Edmondson, A., & Mortensen, M. (2021, April 19). What Psychological Safety Looks Like in a Hybrid Workplace. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/04/what-psychological-safety-looks-like-in-a-hybrid-workplace
- Newman, L. (2021, September 21). The hidden risk of diversity training, and what you should do about it. WeWhistle. https://www.wewhistle.com/the-hidden-risk-of-diversity-training-and-what-you-should-do-about-it/
- Bresman, H., & Edmondson, A. (2022, March 17). Research: To Excel, Diverse Teams Need Psychological Safety. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2022/03/research-to-excel-diverse-teams-need-psychological-safety
- Christian, M. S., Bradley, J. C., Wallace, J. C., & Burke, M. J. (2009). Workplace safety: A meta-analysis of the roles of person and situation factors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1103–1127. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016172
- Jung, O. S., Kundu, P., Edmondson, A. C., Hegde, J., Agazaryan, N., Steinberg, M., & Raldow, A. (2021). Resilience vs. Vulnerability: Psychological Safety and Reporting of Near Misses with Varying Proximity to Harm in Radiation Oncology. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 47(1), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjq.2020.09.005
- Delizonna, L. (2022, October 19). High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety: Here’s How to Create It. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/08/high-performing-teams-need-psychological-safety-heres-how-to-create-it
- Klein, G., Koller, T., & Lovallo, D. (2020, June 29). Bias busters: Premortems: Being smart at the start. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/bias-busters-premortems-being-smart-at-the-start
- Zenger, J. (2018, October 4). Should Leaders Aspire To Warmth Or Competence? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2018/10/04/should-leaders-aspire-to-warmth-or-competence/?sh=424b5787eded
About the Author
Laurel C Newman, Ph.D.
Laurel Newman is a social psychologist and an applied behavioral scientist. She began her career as a psychology professor and department chair at Fontbonne University, leaving academia in 2018 to help create a behavioral science function at Maritz. Laurel consults, conducts research, and delivers corporate behavioral science curricula. She writes articles and books on topics such as employee engagement and how to build a behavioral science function within an organization. Laurel has a Ph.D. in Social and Personality Psychology from Washington University in St. Louis. She works in the Experience Center of Expertise at Edward Jones and is co-founder and advisor to the employee loyalty startup Whistle Systems.
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