Psychological Safety
Improve team dynamics, agility, and capacity to innovate with a certified Fearless Organization practitioner.
Surface underlying issues holding your team back
The Psychological Safety toolkit is designed to diagnose, benchmark, and address multiple aspects of effective teamwork.
Identify.
Unveil how the team views their interpersonal dynamics, based on these dimensions:
✓ Willingness to help
✓ Inclusion and diversity
✓ Attitude to risk and failure
✓ Open conversations
Grow.
Improve overall business results and benefit from better:
✓ Employee engagement
✓ Inclusive environment
✓ Innovation and learning
✓ Feedback culture
“Of the five key dynamics of effective teams that the researchers identified, psychological safety was by far the most important.”
— Project Aristotle - Google’s quest to build the perfect team
Statistically valid, research-backed
The assessment has been vetted for its accuracy with more than 10,000 scans completed since 2019.
For a reliable outcome, the team has to have these characteristics:
Size.
Team size of minimum 6 members (including the manager)
Composition.
Members of the team collaborate on a challenge/project on an ongoing basis (e.g., organic team, project team, cross-functional squad, leadership team, etc.)
Culture.
Willingness and support from the leader and organization throughout the process
Ready to take your team to the next level?
Leave your details and we'll get in touch to share more on how we can help reduce burnout in your team, improve D&I, and unleash your ability to learn and innovate.
Certified Practitioner by your side
The Fearless Organization Scan was developed by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, the leading researcher worldwide on the topic of Psychological Safety in the workplace.
Based on almost 30 years of research, professor Edmondson's framework is featured in her ground-breaking book: The Fearless Organization.
The Middle is thrilled to be an accredited Fearless Organization Scan partner.
Getting started
The program is tailored to your team in 3 Steps, all of which can be done remotely:
1. Align
Kick-off call with team leader and/or HR Business Partner where we define goals and expectations
2. Assess
Meeting with the wider team for introductions and Q&A session, as well as initiating the Fearless Organization assessment survey
3. Address
Scan debrief session and multiple options for addressing the results, such as individual mentoring sessions with the team leader, facilitation of team-wide workshops, ongoing team-facilitation, follow-up scan, etc.
Still need more information?
Leave your details and we'll get back to you for a free consultation call to explore if this is the right program for your team(s).
The makings of a successful team
Whether you work in an organic team or a cross-functional setting, the evidence shows that psychological safety is the foundation for team effectiveness.
Psychologically safe teams allow their members to ask more questions, discuss failures, offer ideas, and speak up before it’s too late.
A common misconception is thinking that Psychological Safety means discussing only the positives, avoiding conflicts, or being touchy-feely.
In reality, it’s about setting high-performance standards while increasing the capacity to innovate, experiment, collaborate, learn from mistakes, and improve engagement
FAQs
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Harvard Professor Amy Edmondson describes Psychological safety as “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes”.
Psychologically safe dynamics allow a team the most fertile ground for learning, innovation, and growth.
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The Fearless organization Scan is a team-specific assessment. It is possible to assess multiple teams (or all teams in the org) and create an organization-wide status report which provides insights and recommendations on the team/department/company level.
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Yes. Psychological safety is something that a team needs to maintain and improve through personnel changes, as the team grows, when workload increases, and other factors in a rapidly moving environment.
Assessing your status with an unbiased instrument helps identify issues before they become a problem.
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When team members feel psychologically safe, they openly discuss mistakes, share feedback, learn, and experiment.
Fear of looking incompetent, intrusive, or ignorant shuts down creativity and promotes a fixed mindset.
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Psychological safety and accountability are not two ends of a spectrum. When a team is high on just one or the other, its members are far from reaching their full potential.
The highest levels of team effectiveness are reached when both psychological safety and performance standards are high, creating the Learning Zone and promoting radical candor.
Interested?
We’re excited to go on this journey with you
Looking for something else?
Check out our other programs for both individuals and teams.
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Leadership Mentoring
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