Psychological safety at work
Group learning module · Based on Edmondson (1999) and related research
Google's Project Aristotle (2016) studied 180 teams across two years and found psychological safety was the single strongest predictor of team effectiveness — outweighing talent, tenure, seniority, and organizational structure.
Researchers call this the "mum effect" — people consistently hold back information that might be unwelcome, even when sharing it would help. Milliken, Morrison & Hewlin (2003) found 85% of employees had stayed silent about a concern at work, most often fearing they'd be seen as negative or damage a relationship. The cost is invisible: the organization never learns what it doesn't hear.
Nembhard & Edmondson (2006) studied surgical teams learning a new cardiac procedure. Teams with higher psychological safety had 3× better outcomes — not because they made fewer mistakes, but because they caught and corrected errors faster.
Anxiety zone
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When have you known something important but stayed quiet? What stopped you?
Comfort zone
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Is there a topic your team consistently avoids? What would it mean to actually talk about it?
Learning zone
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When did someone on this team take a risk by speaking up — and it made things better?
Apathy zone
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Has there been a moment where you stopped trying to contribute? What caused that?