After the launch of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the NASA team on Earth noticed that the insulation was falling off the ship, but most agreed that there was nothing wrong – it had happened before, and there were no bad consequences. The topic was closed and we moved on to a discussion of possible changes to reduce flight preparations for the next mission. But the loss of the heat shield turned out to be critical, one of its pieces broke through the left wing, and hot gases penetrated through the hole inside, which caused the shuttle to explode.
NASA has long been a model example of a performance culture: execution excellence was paramount. Despite incredible accomplishments, the organization fell into a cycle of arrogance. Employees took pride in a standardized work order, became increasingly confident in routines and saw validation of their decisions in the results, but did not look for opportunities to rethink. Rethinking is not just an individual skill. It is a collective ability, heavily influenced by the culture of the organization. Read more in this piece based on the book Think Again.
Mental Safety
The opportunity for reinvention is more common in a culture of knowledge accumulation, where growth is a key value. In a culture that values learning, it is considered the norm to see the limits of one’s knowledge, question existing methods, and try new ones. Organizations with this culture generate more innovation and are less likely to make mistakes. And such a culture flourishes with a certain balance of psychological security and responsibility.
Amy Edmondson, an engineer by training and a management professor by profession, was interested in whether it was possible to prevent medical errors. She interviewed hospital employees about the degree of psychological safety they felt as a team: would they take a risk without fear of punishment? Then she collected data on the number of medical errors on each team. Amy was surprised to find that the higher the psychological safety in the team, the more often people made mistakes.
Consequently, psychological safety leads to carelessness. With deep mutual trust, people do not feel the need to double-check themselves and their colleagues. However, Edmondson soon realized that she was missing data, since all errors were recorded from the words of those who made them. In order to get the exact number of errors, she sent a request to the department of clandestine observers.
After analyzing the data she received, it turned out the opposite: teams with psychological safety were more likely to report lapses, but made them less often.
Unafraid to admit a mistake, they were able to calmly figure out what caused it and not repeat it in the future. People who did not feel psychologically safe in the team kept silent about the blunders, fearing punishment, so they did not look for the reasons for the mistakes and repeated them over and over again in the future.
In recent years, this phrase can be heard everywhere. Managers understand that psychological safety is important, but not everyone knows what it is exactly and how to provide it. Edmondson immediately emphasized that psychological safety has nothing to do with lowering standards, making employees comfortable and coddling them, or offering undeserved praise.
It is an atmosphere of mutual respect, trust and openness, where anyone can express concerns and suggestions without fear. It is the basis of a culture of knowledge accumulation.
In a performance culture with its emphasis on results, psychological safety is often underestimated. Seeing others punished for failures and mistakes, people try to prove their competence, learn to bite their tongue in time, and keep their questions and opinions to themselves. Sometimes it’s about power distancing: employees are afraid of the wrath of the boss. Management’s desire to bend everyone to their liking is obvious, and disagreement can come at a price. It’s also not common in performance culture to argue with experts because they are assumed to know all the answers.
From the book Think Again.
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