Typologies of Power In a few previous newsletters, we’ve gotten into power dynamics, power gradients, “power over” vs “power for” and “power to” (see Mary Parker Follett). Steep power gradients are the number one inhibitor of psychological safety, and addressing
The 2024 Psych Safety Book List In case you’ve managed to avoid the onslaught of marketing emails from companies trying to sell you every conceivable product, it’s Black Friday today! Instead of trying to sell to you, we thought we’d share
We’ve been rather busy this week, in the midst of this round of psychological safety online workshops, including fundamentals, practices, leadership, measurement, advanced, and workshop design and facilitation. With that in mind, we thought it would be a good time
Psychological Safety Doesn’t Mean Feeling Comfortable By Jade Garratt There are many misconceptions about psychological safety. One is that if we “achieve” psychological safety, it means that people will feel comfortable all the time. It’s understandable to see how that
The Chatham House Rule By Jade Garratt We always begin our workshops with a social contract. These are important because they make sure at the very beginning, that we’re on the same page in terms of our expectations of each
A team is only as safe as the least safe person When measuring the psychological safety in a team, we often are asked which measurement should be considered the “group measurement,” given that different individuals will likely experience rather different
The Andon Cord It’s been a busy week with workshops and talks, so this week we’re revisiting the Andon Cord. Probably my favourite real-world psychological safety practice, the Andon Cord is a brilliant approach to quality improvement. A fundamental part
Academic fraud, data and dishonesty When I was studying ecology at undergraduate level, I maybe naively believed that academic research and the peer review process was the most robust and rigorous way to discover, evaluate, and build knowledge. As work,
Being Approachable By Jade Garratt Most of us would probably like to think of ourselves as approachable at work. We might have bad moments, or bad days, but we will likely think that on the whole, we are approachable. Approachability
The Fundamental Attribution Error We address the Fundamental Attribution Error in most of our workshops, particularly our Feedback ones, because it’s such a common bias and it causes so many problems. Essentially, the Fundamental Attribution Error occurs when we attribute
The Definition Of Psychological Safety Psychological safety is defined as the belief, in a group, that we are safe to take interpersonal risks. It’s the belief that we are able to speak up with ideas, questions, concerns and mistakes, and
Can you see the cat? This image is a meme from 1879 (yes, memes were a thing 140+ years ago!) used by the “Georgist” movement. Henry George was an economist who examined the apparent paradox of how the USA could
It’s no good having a great culture if you’ve gone out of business. Psychological safety is the foundational factor in ensuring teams and organisations are as high performing as possible. It’s also ethically the right thing to do. People deserve
How to foster psychological safety with your own manager. By Jade Garratt Psychological safety isn’t only the responsibility of those in leadership positions. We believe that if you have the power to destroy psychological safety for someone – if you
Paul O’Neill at Alcoa By Jade Garratt, Bea Poyton and Tom Geraghty In our leadership workshops, we often talk about failures of psychological safety – what happens when, in an absence of psychological safety, concerns are not raised, questions remain
Experiments, bets and probes One of our mottos at PsychSafety is “everything is an experiment”. The outcome of work shouldn’t just be getting the thing done, it should be learning how to do it better next time. Experiments don’t mean
The Johari Window Many people first encounter the Johari Window in leadership or personal development training. I was introduced to it in exactly that way – it was presented as a simple but powerful tool for self-awareness and managing feedback.
(DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) We’ve recently seen more and more people (almost always white, straight men) jumping on the “DEI didn’t work” bandwagon, even some who are prominent in the psychological safety domain. And it’s really worrying, so
Humble Inquiry By Jade Garratt When was the last time someone told you something you already knew? How did it make you feel? Edgar Schein opens his book “Humble Inquiry” with a story about his own experiences of this while
Psychological safety and neurodiversity Psychological safety is defined as a shared belief that a group is safe for interpersonal risk taking. In practice, this seems simple; individuals speaking up, sharing ideas, asking questions and admitting mistakes, all without fear of
Psychological Safety vs Psychosocial Safety You’ve probably heard of psychological safety, and you may also have heard of “psychosocial safety”. In this piece, we’re exploring what psychosocial safety actually is, and how it is different to psychological safety. In Australia,
Goodhart’s Law, Campbell’s Law, and the Cobra Effect. We’ve mentioned Goodhart’s Law a few times in previous newsletters about measuring psychological safety, alongside its siblings, Campbell’s Law and The Cobra Effect. I thought it would be useful to do a
How psychological safety emerges and changes over time in the workplace. Given that psychological safety itself is a relatively young field, there’s not a huge amount of published research that addresses the longitudinal dynamics of psychological safety in the workplace:
The Highest Paid Person’s Opinion. One of the (many) barriers to speaking up is the knowledge or perception that your voice doesn’t carry as much weight as someone else’s. This can be particularly common when in the presence of those
