Psychological safety is super important for allowing people to grow and develop in a team setting. Having psychological safety can help bring out the best in teams and allow teams to flourish. Psychological safety is the ability to be ones true self in a group without hiding or masking who they are. This is a crucial step in team development and bond building. Teams that don’t have psychological safety might be all right in the short term but in the long term they will suffer and struggle.
In reading through the article on Psychological Safety from Google, it was interesting to see that there wasn’t really a pattern to success, just psychological safety. It didn’t entirely matter if the groups were all business or enjoyed idle chitchat while they worked on tasks, as long as everyone got a chance to be heard and felt supported the teams could flourish. It’s wild to think about how many people don’t know about this kind of safety and coming from a kitchen background I can tell you that psychological safety was rarely if ever a concern or worry. I am happier to move into a world that places value on these aspects and hope it will continue. In many instances of my kitchen career psychological or even physical safety were 2nd to job performance and operational success, which lead to a lot of turnover in that environment.