Of Course Managers Don’t Understand “Psychological Safety.” Why WOULD They, Honestly?

It’s a suitcase term, for one.

Best I can tell, I have written about psychological safety once before:

Managers view psychological safety as fluffy bullshit, but it’s very real

Here is what it should mean:

In 2012, Google launched “Project Aristotle,” studying hundreds of Google teams to determine what factors made some thrive while others faltered. One common denominator among high-performing teams was what Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson terms “psychological safety” — confidence that team members can speak up or even make mistakes and still receive support from the team.

So basically, an openness to failure, etc. Some transparent discussions. That kind of stuff.