What Psychological Safety is NOT
Just as it is important that we state and understand what Psychological Safety is, we also need to state and understand what it is not. This is important because there have been instances where, as with any other new and radical concept, people have misunderstood the meaning of it and have then adop
This article is based on the chapter with the same name in Duena's book People Before Tech: The Importance of Psychological Safety and Teamwork in the Digital Age.
This article builds on the Human Debt Framework.
Just as it is important that we state and understand what Psychological Safety is, we also need to state and understand what it is not.
This is important because there have been times where, as with any other new and radical concept, people have misunderstood the meaning of it. They have applied their own lens and have then adopted its inaccurate definition anyway, and doing so does neither concept any favours. This is further complicated by how the confusion with most of these topics is entirely understandable because they are all connected to people topics and therefore collectively, new topics for all of us.
Over the years, there have been several articles such as Psychological Safety Is Not a Hygiene Factor by Amy Edmondson, Psychological Safety - What it is NOT by Duena Blomstrom and Psychological Safety is Not Nice
by Ffion Jones, that aim to demystify and clarify some of these misconceptions.
Here is a list of the things that Psychological Safety is not:
