Everyday Neuro 025: The Neuroscience of Psychological Safety – When Admitting Mistakes can be the Best Solution

Introduction to Psychological Safety

0:00Hello, and welcome to the Everyday Neuro podcast series. I'm your host, Dr. Janine Cooper, and I'm aiming to provide you with the knowledge and inspiration to understand the fascinating world of the human brain. Today, we're diving into a topic that's crucial for anyone working in teams or organisations, or in my mind, whenever you're working with other people, and that's

0:34psychological safety. We're going to explore what it is, why it matters, and my favourite bit of it is the brain science that's behind it. So let's get started by understanding what psychological safety is by looking at one of its most influential contributors. That person is Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School, who introduced the concept of psychological safety in the 1990s. Amy defined it as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal

1:11risk-taking. And this idea has since transformed how organisations think about leadership, innovation, and team dynamics. Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's a show that we recommend.

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Defining Psychological Safety

2:31Now, psychological safety isn't about avoiding conflict or always agreeing. More, it's about creating an environment where people can challenge ideas. They can admit mistakes and ask questions. All of this without fear of embarrassment or punishment. It's a little bit ironic that it was only by making a mistake that Edmondson came across her now hugely influential finding. It was while studying medical teams that Amy predicted that better teams would make fewer mistakes.

3:07But surprisingly, she found the opposite was true. Rather, high-performing teams reported more errors. And the answer was that in these high-achieving teams, there was a feeling of safety, a feeling that it was safe enough to speak up, to be able to identify what was and wasn't working early in the proceedings so that the solutions or the alternative actions could actually be made and stop the erroneous behaviour from continuing. So this counter-intuitive finding led Amy Edmondson

3:44to explore the concept of psychological safety.

Validation of Psychological Safety

3:49Now, as with all good research, validation is required, which is basically the process of demonstrating that a research study, a measure, or an instrument accurately reflects the concept that it's intended to measure. At its core, it's about ensuring that the findings are genuine and meaningful rather than influenced by something we call extraneous factors, so factors outside of the experiment, so to speak. Essentially, validation in research answers this question. Are we measuring what

4:24we think we're measuring? So for the concept of psychological safety? This came in 2015, when Google conducted a huge internal study to find out what made teams successful. Google discovered that the top factor was psychological safety, exactly what Edmondson had been studying for decades. And this brought her work into the global spotlight. One of the reasons I became interested in psychological safety is that it actually aligns with

4:58brain science. And when people feel safe, the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for things like decision making, reasoning and creativity, stays active. Whereas in contrast, when people feel threatened, the amygdala takes place over an area I know I've talked about a lot in this podcast series. And as you may remember, the amygdala triggers this fight or flight response, otherwise known as your sympathetic nervous system. And when that gets activated, it basically

5:31shuts down your ability to think clearly, you can get very, very stressed, your heart rate can go up. And one of the things that happens to your thinking is that it actually disables the ability to be innovative, and to be productive, and to reduce our ability to think clearly. So let's have a look at some of the brain science behind the concept of psychological safety. I think it's nice to start with an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex. From

6:03now on, I'm just going to refer to it as the ACC, because it is a little bit of a mouthful. Now the ACC is the part of the brain that is activated when we experience social exclusion, criticism, rejection, or embarrassment. But it also activates when we respond to actual physical pain. And this overlap explains why being ignored or dismissed at work can feel so distressing, including the pain we often feel when we perceive rejection. This was observed in a

6:36terrific 2003 neuroimaging study conducted by Naomi Eisenberger and colleagues, which is often known as the cyberball experiment. And the research showed that even simulated social rejection lights up areas of the ACC. Another area which I'm sure you'll know something about, especially if you've been listening to earlier episodes of the Everyday Neuro podcast is the prefrontal cortex, which I mentioned earlier. Now, the prefrontal

7:07cortex is really considered to be the human hub of reasoning and social behaviour. And this region is responsible for, as I said earlier, decision making, problem solving, and emotional regulation. It functions best when people perceive that they're in a safe, predictable environment. When psychological safety is low, however, the brain shifts into what we can often see as a survival mode, and it impairs higher order

7:38thinking, and it makes us feel uneasy and easily confused. Two key chemicals in the brain that play a role in psychological safety are oxytocin, often called the trust hormone, and also dopamine, which, as you may know already, is linked to reward, motivation, and learning. If we look at oxytocin first, then its role is to enhance social bonding, trust, and collaboration. And environments that are psychologically safe foster

8:09connection, and the shared success naturally will boost oxytocin, reinforcing team cohesion. In a similar way, when we receive recognition and positive feedback as part of a psychologically safe team or environment, we often see a spike in dopamine production, which encourages people to take initiative and also share ideas. As well as the brain areas that are seen to be activated during psychological safety, and also the hormones and neurochemicals that are produced, I've mentioned oxytocin and dopamine,

8:46an exciting process that occurs through feeling psychologically safe is neuroplasticity, which thrives in environments where mistakes are seen as learning opportunities and not as failures. The idea that our brains can adapt and become more efficient when we learn in a psychologically safe way is in stark contrast to the research that shows degradation of ability and brain health when people are in highly stressful environments or have experienced a traumatic event. If you'd like more information about

9:19neuroplasticity, then please listen to episode 24. And if you'd like more understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD and ways to actively support well-being, then please download episode 19.

Myths About Psychological Safety

9:36So now that we've talked about the brain science, let's have a look at some of the myths about psychological safety. The first one I'm going to talk about is that psychological safety means being nice all of the time. My goodness, that would be quite the challenge. Many people think that psychological safety is about avoiding conflict and always being polite, whereas in reality, it's about creating an environment where people feel safe to express their thoughts and concerns,

10:07even if that leads to difficult conversations. Another myth is that it lowers performance standards, because some believe that focusing on psychological safety means that you have to compromise on performance. Whereas in reality, psychological safety actually will enhance performance by encouraging open communication. It will foster innovation and risk taking without the fear of punishment is actually going to lead to more innovation and productivity. Another myth is that it eliminates all discomfort at work.

10:45Well, it doesn't mean that there'll be no discomfort or challenges, not at all. In fact, it's about ensuring that people can speak up and take risks without the fear of negative consequences. So it goes back to that original finding by Amy Edmondson from the medical teams. The more that they actually voiced the errors, the quicker and more productive they became. One of the myths is that it's only the responsibility of leadership. Now, while leaders do play obviously a

11:17huge role in fostering psychological safety, it has to be a collective effort. Every team member contributes to creating a safe and respectful environment. And I personally think that it can be applied outside of the work environment too, because at the end of the day, it is actually a level of kindness rather than being nice. It's about fostering social connection and psychological safety. When you're able to speak freely and admit that maybe something hasn't worked, that will only lead to greater

11:51bonding and communication. It's also not just about protecting feelings. Psychological safety is not just about making people feel good. It's about enabling honest and constructive dialogue, which can lead to better decision making and problem solving. Now, you might think that placating and agreeing with everything a person, especially a leader, has to say, well, that might lead in your mind to a more positive outcome.

12:22Whereas in contrast, often calmly delivering a curious approach and admitting that something's not quite working out will actually lead to the perception of a more genuine interaction. And when these interactions are taking place, then we do see a surge in the neurochemicals I mentioned earlier, oxytocin and dopamine. Another myth is that it happens automatically, whereas in fact, building psychological safety really does

12:55require intentional effort and it will improve continuously. It doesn't grow overnight. So again, it isn't just leaders. It is about everyone working as a collective, as I noted earlier. So hopefully you're starting to really get a feel for what psychological safety is. And you've also acquired knowledge about what parts of the brain are linked to this kind of behavior. But adopting a psychologically safe workplace mentally has

13:25several positive effects on the brain. And I'd really like to talk about those next. So I mentioned the amygdala earlier, and I'll just sort of give you a bit more information about that. So being psychologically safe leads to reduced amygdala activation. Now, we know that the amygdala is responsible for our sort of fear responses or basically monitoring the environment for threat. And it's responsible for processing emotions as well, and particularly fear and threat, as I said. So in a psychologically safe

13:59environment, the amygdala's activity decreases. And this leads to a lower stress response and anxiety levels drop as well. So again, it's about engaging that parasympathetic or rest and digest system, which allows your body to be calm. And when you're calm, you make better decisions.

14:21There's also a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. And what we'll see when we practice psychological safety is that we're balancing hypothalamus activity. Now, why is that important? Well, the hypothalamus regulates our body's stress response once again, and it controls the release of the stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. In a psychologically safe workplace, the hypothalamus maintains a balanced activity level. And again, this reduces that fight or flight or sympathetic

14:56nervous system response. I think one of the things that's really important about psychological safety is to understand how to adopt this kind of behaviour in the workplace. So I'm going to put myself outside of my comfort zone now, and I'm going to try and illustrate through doing a little bit of like a script, how to adopt a psychologically safe sort of interaction. And we've got to imagine that there

15:27are three people involved in this. There's going to be Alex, Joe, and Raj. The leader in this case is Alex. And Joe is the direct lead of the project. And Raj is one of the people working on that project as well. So I'm going to try and show you some of the techniques that are used in psychological safety to promote well-being and that motivation to share things, even if they're not going well.

15:59So here we go. So Alex might say, for example, thanks for joining everyone. And before we dive into next week's priorities, I want to take a moment to reflect on last week's project deadline. We didn't quite hit the mark, and that's okay. This is a space where we can learn together. And Joe, would you feel comfortable sharing what happened from your perspective? Joe might say, sure. Thanks, Alex. Honestly, I underestimated how long the testing phase would take. I also didn't speak up early enough when I realised I was falling

16:33behind and I was worried it would reflect poorly on me. So Joe has actually really opened up there and been quite brave to reveal some of their feelings about the situation. Not only have they revealed that they've underestimated something, they've also said that if they'd spoken up earlier, then that might have had a beneficial effect. So it's really putting them in a vulnerable position. And fortunately, in this instance, Alex, the leader, is actually somebody that's obviously said this is a safe

17:05workplace. So we hope that they're going to be pleased to at least hear that there has been some sharing about the situation. So it could be then that the leader, Alex, says, thank you, Joe, for being open. And I really appreciate your honesty. It does take courage to share that. And just to be clear, missing a deadline doesn't define your value here. We're all learning and your voice matters. Now, you might be thinking at this point, my goodness, I don't know whether I've been in a

17:36meeting like this, but maybe that's a reflection of the culture in your workplace. You don't necessarily have to do it quite so sort of nicely as this. It could be that you just take elements of it and put it into your work practice. It could be that this kind of way of conversing is very, very alien to you. And that's absolutely fine. But it is a way of communicating that has been shown to be hugely beneficial for innovation, productivity, overall well-being in people who are working in a team.

18:13And at the end of the day, by being open, being safe to sort of talk about the errors that may be going on or some things that people haven't done well, then you're really opening up the floor to discuss the ways in which it can improve and what support and helpful strategies are available to

Applying Psychological Safety in the Workplace

18:30the team. The leader should be there to guide as well and also to reflect on their own mistakes. I think that's one of the top techniques within psychological safety practice is that leaders shouldn't be this sort of barrier. They should be seen to be able to share when it hasn't worked for them and how they overcome that situation. Now, I did mention that Raj was another co-worker and they may be reflecting on the conversation that's going on between Alex and Jo. So Raj might say something like, just want to say I've been there too. It's easy to feel like you've had to handle

19:05everything alone, but I'm glad you've shared it because maybe next time I can give you a bit more support and we could also have a few more check-ins. So what's happening there is that Raj is reflecting on not only their leader sort of saying it's okay to admit these things and to share that, you know, things aren't going as well as you'd hoped, but also to support Jo in being able to make the timeline, to make the deadline and also to find ways to check in and see where things might have been going wrong.

19:37It could be then on the reflection of Raj, Alex might say, great idea Raj, let's make that part of our process. And Jo, next time you feel stuck, please know you can always reach out because we're here to support each other not to judge. So again, judgment is never going to be a beneficial thing, but curiosity of how things are going, that's quite a different process, a different behavior. I think a leader should be curious. They should be welcoming to hear things that are going on within

20:09the process because at the end of the day, as it is in education, the process is probably more important than the outcome. Well, I say that the outcome is very important, but knowing how things have reached that outcome are what make that outcome more successful. So it could be then that Jo has really heard that they've got this support in the workplace and has said, you know, thanks a lot. I really appreciate it. And next time I'm definitely going to speak up sooner. So then the leader, Alex, will be able to complete the check-in and say, great,

20:44let's keep learning and growing together. Now let's have a look to next week's goals. Okay, well, that's my acting career written off. You can see I've certainly not got those skills, but I hope this kind of little script, this role play session has given you some ideas. If you're a leader about how you can start a meeting to find out what is going on within your team, also to promote the sharing of, you know, the process, whether things are going well or not so

21:14well. But also to make sure if you are going to open up the floor to this kind of open and honest conversation, that you do exactly what you say, you keep it safe and that, you know, judgment is not part of your leadership style.

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22:33So today we've talked about psychological safety, a concept developed by Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson, whose work was validated by Google's internal study into productivity called The Aristotle Project. Amy has published a lot of work, but her seminal book is called The Fearless Organization, which provides a comprehensive guide on creating psychologically safe workplaces. Another leading person in this area is Adam Grant, so you might want to check out their work as well.

23:07I think that what's important to me and why I created this episode is that by understanding the brain science behind psychological safety, we can create environments where everyone feels safe to contribute, which is essential for teams and the people that make up those teams to thrive mentally, emotionally and psychologically and to develop the best ideas. And on that note, thanks for listening and I hope you'll join me again for another episode of the Everyday Neuro Podcast. Until next time, take care.

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