Psychological safety
A team's shared confidence that questions, mistakes, and concerns can be raised without penalty.
Psychological safety is a team's shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks without fearing negative consequences. This includes asking questions, admitting mistakes, and voicing concerns. The term dates back to the 1960s. Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson established it as a property of teams. It is considered a precondition for teams to learn.
Last updated: September 20, 2026 · Editorially responsible: MindBright editorial team
A team climate in which openness carries no penalty.
Not harmony at any price and not a lowering of standards.
Because problems only get solved when someone raises them.
Origin and research
In the 1990s, Amy Edmondson came across a puzzling finding: the best hospital teams reported more errors than the weaker ones. The explanation lay in how openly these teams talked about mistakes. In a 1999 study of 51 teams in a manufacturing company, she showed that psychological safety is linked to learning behavior and better team performance.
Google's internal research project Aristotle reported a similar result in 2015. Among the factors it examined, psychological safety turned out to be the most important for successful teams. The study appeared outside peer-reviewed journals and is consistent with Edmondson's findings.
For high performers
Whether a team is psychologically safe is decided in small moments, such as the reaction to a reported mistake or to disagreement in a meeting. Leaders set the tone for this, usually without noticing. An irritated look at a follow-up question lasts longer than any speech about learning from mistakes.
Only combined with high standards does psychological safety produce what Edmondson calls the learning zone. A powerful way in is to speak openly about your own mistakes and uncertainties as a leader. That shows it is allowed and lowers the threshold for everyone else. Your team takes its cue from what you model.
Distinctions
vs. Trust
Trust exists between two people. Psychological safety is a property of the whole team. A team can consist of people who trust each other individually and still stay silent.
vs. Organizational resilience
Psychological safety is a precondition for organizational resilience, because disruptions are only detected early when someone reports them.
vs. Toxic positivity
Toxic positivity only admits good news. Psychological safety makes bad news sayable too.
Frequently asked questions
What does psychological safety mean in a team?
That team members can ask questions, admit mistakes, and disagree without fearing ridicule or penalties. The feeling is shared by the whole team and grows out of many everyday experiences.
How can leaders create psychological safety?
By responding to reported mistakes with curiosity, actively asking for concerns, and speaking openly about their own uncertainties. Repetition is what counts: a team believes behavior it has seen many times more than announcements. It also helps to ask explicitly for objections at the end of a meeting.
Does psychological safety mean everyone is nice to each other?
No. Psychologically safe teams often argue more openly, because disagreement is allowed. High standards and clear feedback are explicitly part of it.
Related terms
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