When there is psychological safety in a team, team members are more assured that others will not respond negatively to them. As a result, they tend to be more open to “speak up”, share information and knowledge, ask for help, admit mistakes, suggest ideas and innovations, and initiate the development of the tasks and responsibilities.
In a psychologically safe environment, conflict occurs in a constructive manner, where team members feel safe to disagree, and are less focused on self-censorship and self-protection. They also have more productive problem-solving discussions that enable the team to achieved shared goals and team learning.
When psychological safety does not exist, team members will believe that conflicts bring risks, and they try their best to avoid conflicts. It becomes challenging for them to express thoughts that are against the majority of the team, because they fear being judged.
The Fearless Organization Scan is an assessment to measure psychological safety and begin the crucial conversations that teams need to have in order to work well together. Developed in collaboration with Harvard Business School Professor Amy C. Edmondson, it is backed by more than 2 decades of research and widely regarded as the gold standard to measure psychological safety.
Using the Psychological Safety Index (PSI) that is based on Professor Edmondson’s work, this innovative tool reveals how a team stacks up against the global benchmark data across four domains that contribute to a safe environment as follows:
