Psychological Unsafety Is Not Always Obvious
By now, we should all understand what psychological safety is and what it is not. It’s not about being “nice” or avoiding hard conversations.
As Amy Edmondson and Michaela Kerrissey clarify in their recent Harvard Business Review article, psychological safety means creating an environment where people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and be vulnerable in front of each other.
But here’s the catch: the absence of psychological safety is not always obvious. It doesn’t necessarily show up as yelling or overt hostility. Often, it manifests in subtler, sneakier ways.