Is Psychological Safety the human engine behind business improvement?

 

Is Psychological Safety the human engine behind business improvement, innovation, and productivity?

In the world of business improvement, there’s plenty of talk about systems, methodologies, and strategies such as Lean, Six Sigma, agile frameworks, digital transformation and operational excellence. Businesses most usually focus heavily on tools and metrics, but rarely do we talk seriously about something equally - if not more - important and that the human environment in which all of this happens.... enter psychological safety.

Psychological safety, a term popularised by Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson, refers to a shared belief that it’s safe to speak up, challenge ideas, raise concerns and admit mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation. It’s not about wrapping people in cotton wool, far from it, it’s about creating a culture where people can contribute honestly and fully without self censorship or fear.

If you work in business improvement, you should care deeply about this. Psychological safety isn’t a soft, fluffy concept to be ridiculed or ignored, it’s a hard edged driver of performance. It’s the invisible force that allows continuous improvement to thrive, innovation to take root and productivity to lift. Without it, your best processes and cleverest strategies will quietly fail to deliver what they promise or what the board expected.

Let’s start with continuous improvement. At its core, improvement work relies on people asking a simple question really, How can we do this better? But in many organisations, this question rarely gets asked out loud. Employees spot problems or inefficiencies, but they don’t speak up. They know something is off or something could be improved, sometimes easily, but they say nothing. Why... because they’re afraid of being seen as negative, difficult, disloyal or just plain wrong.

This silence is costly because when people don’t feel safe to speak up, problems get buried, mistakes go uncorrected and opportunities for improvement are overlooked or lost. Leaders may believe everything is fine because no one is raising concerns, but that’s not a sign of health - its a sign of fear. In contrast, organisations that intentionally develop psychological safety create a culture where people are encouraged, even expected, to notice what isn’t working and share their insights. This means problems get surfaced early, improvements come from everywhere, and progress becomes part of the everyday rhythm of the business.

Psychological safety also unlocks innovation in people and projects. By its nature, innovation requires risk. People have to challenge norms, pitch untested and new ideas, and try things that might fail (experiment) which can be uncomfortable. In unsafe environments, people tend to stick to what they know, they avoid sticking their necks out and keep their ideas to themselves. They’d rather play it safe than risk embarrassment or conflict, because as one person said to me...'it just not worth it'.

However in psychologically safe teams, people feel free to experiment, to try new things. They’re more willing to challenge assumptions, share bold ideas and learn from failed attempts. This is how innovation actually happens, its not through top-down mandates or forced creativity sessions, but through a culture where diverse thinking is welcomed and risk taking is safe. In fact, Google’s landmark internal study of team performance, known as Project Aristotle, found psychological safety to be the single most important factor in high performing teams, and is considered more important than intelligence, experience or individual talent.

As Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, put it: "We get the best ideas, insights and solutions when everyone feels safe to speak up."

Beyond improvement and innovation, psychological safety has a measurable impact on productivity. Fear, micromanagement and blame all drain energy and focus. People spend time managing impressions, covering their backside, avoiding blame and second-guessing what they can or can’t say. This amounts to survival behaviour and its neither healthy or productive.

When people feel psychologically safe, they are able to focus on the task, not on protecting themselves. They communicate more clearly, find it easier to ask for help earlier, admit when something’s going wrong and collaborate more effectively. More importantly, they’re willing to give what psychologists call discretionary effort, that bit of extra, the going-above-and-beyond and not because they have to, but because they want to. People feel part of something that values them and their contribution, and in the productivity stakes, that voluntary commitment is gold dust.

Now, let’s consider a common misconception, some leaders seem to think that fostering psychological safety means lowering standards or letting people off the hook. In fact, the opposite is true. Psychological safety doesn’t mean anything goes, it means creating an environment where people can take responsibility for their work, own their mistakes and hold themselves - and each other - accountable, without the fear of punishment or shame.

The goal is not to avoid difficult conversations, rather about having better ones for easily and effectively. When people feel safe, they’re more likely to ask for, give and receive honest feedback, tackle poor performance early, and surface issues before they escalate. It becomes easier to say, 'this isn’t working—what can we do differently?' or 'I need help with this,' without fear of looking weak or incompetent. Now this is where real accountability kicks in and it leads to real performance.

More broadly, psychological safety helps businesses become more resilient. In a fast moving world, things change, strategies fail, markets shift and as we are seeing even more now, customers are demanding more. Resilience isn’t built through rigid control or fear based management. Resilience is built through trust, adaptability and open communication. When people trust that they can speak the truth, even when it’s messy or uncomfortable, they can adapt faster, support each other more effectively and recover from setbacks more quickly - which is particularly noticeable in sports.

Pixar is a powerful example of this in business. They embedded psychological safety into their creative process with their famous Braintrust sessions. These were intense feedback meetings where filmmakers were encouraged to share early ideas and receive blunt, honest critique from trusted colleagues. The point wasn’t to protect feelings, moreover it was to protect creativity. As co-founder Ed Catmull said, "You are not your idea. If you identify too closely with your ideas, you’ll take offence when they are challenged. That destroys collaboration."

Microsoft, too, made a cultural pivot when Satya Nadella became CEO. He recognised that the company had a deeply ingrained know-it-all culture, which stifled learning and innovation. Nadella replaced it with a 'learn-it-all' mindset, focused on curiosity, growth and safety to challenge ideas. He described the shift as critical to rebuilding Microsoft’s agility, relevance and market performance.

Closer to home, UK retail business Timpson is often cited for its radically human approach to management. CEO James Timpson has created a culture of trust and autonomy through what he calls upside-down management. Frontline employees are empowered to make decisions, take ownership and raise issues, all based on trust, not fear. It’s a simple but powerful practical example of psychological safety in action.

In healthcare, psychological safety can literally save lives. Studies from NHS teams in operating theatres and A&E departments have shown that when nurses and junior doctors feel safe to question decisions or raise concerns, the rate of medical errors and adverse outcomes decreases dramatically. These are environments where hierarchy and fear have historically ruled, but change is coming and lives are being saved because of it.

So if the benefits are so clear, why don’t more organisations actively cultivate psychological safety? 

Part of the problem is that silence can look like alignment. Leaders may assume that if no one’s pushing back, then everyone agrees. But that’s often not the case. In too many businesses, people nod politely in meetings, then grumble privately afterwards. The disconnect between what’s said publicly and what’s really going on can be enormous.

Another reason is habit. Many cultures are still rooted in command-and-control, where leadership is about having the answers, not asking questions. In these environments, showing vulnerability is seen as weakness and if the leader never admits they don’t know something, neither will anyone else.

Creating psychological safety doesn’t require a 12-month programme or a new system. It starts with leadership behaviour every day. Leaders are the most watched population in the business, those who model openness, ask for input, admit mistakes and respond thoughtfully when challenged build the kind of culture where people feel safe to contribute. The tone is set at the top, but lived out in the day-to-day interactions across the business.

As Amy Edmondson says, 'Psychological safety is not about being nice. It’s about giving candid feedback, openly admitting mistakes and learning from each other."

So if you're genuine about wanting to improve your business and performance, start by improving how people feel about working in it. Make it safer psychologically, because when people feel safe, they perform better, contribute more and care more. Psychological safety is a real lever (MIT Sloan) behind any successful business improvement effort.