Commercial organisations survive by maintaining competitive advantage, which ultimately means incubating innovation.
Innovation isn’t easy to come by, it requires creative abrasion and constructive dissent – processes that rely on high intellectual friction and low social friction. It is the leader’s task to simultaneously increase intellectual friction while decreasing social friction. Any presence of fear in an organisation is a sure-fire sign of weak leadership.
Psychological safety is a condition in which you feel included1, safe to learn2, safe to contribute3 and safe to challenge the status quo4 – all without fear of being embarrassed, marginalised, or punished in any way.
The absence of psychological safety can inflict devastating emotional wounds, neutralise
performance, paralyse potential and crater an individual’s sense of self-worth. Organisations
that lack psychological safety are ultimately galloping their way to extinction.

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