Welcome, I'm your host Greg McEwan and I am here with you on a journey to learn so that we can make a higher contribution.

Do you feel psychologically safer at work now than you did several years ago?

It's an interesting question and today I've invited perhaps the preeminent expert in the world on the subject of psychological safety

to discuss that and other things with us.

This is Dr Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard and the person most responsible for making the term psychological safety ubiquitous in the world.

After she published a paper more than 20 years ago focused on this subject.

This is part one of two parts to our conversation.

I knew it was going to be a good conversation because Amy is as capable as they come and the subject is so timely.

But even with that the conversation went further and deeper, more real, more raw than I expected it would.

By the end of this episode you will have new insight as to what psychological safety actually is and what it isn't.

And where the threats are coming from to that psychological safety in today's workplace.

Let's begin.

And if you want to get more out of these episodes learn faster and go more deeply.

Thank you for having me.

20 years ago if you can believe it more than 20 years ago you defined this term psychological safety.

And one of the definitions you have identified is its permission for Canada.

Can you unpack that definition and just how else you think of this essential idea?

Absolutely. So think about children. They're very direct right they will say anything I mean little children you know certainly pre school.

They formal schooling will say anything that comes into their head they'll ask questions they'll point out the spinach on your teeth whatever right they'll do it they'll do it.

But one of the things we learn how to do starting an elementary school and certainly by the time we are working adults it's all but second nature is to hold back right to wait and see to say the things you're pretty confident will be will earn you approval and to stay away from the things that you believe might earn you disapproval rejection humiliation or worse.

So it's that's what education and socialization is one of the things that education and socialization are good at reinforcing a kind of habitual response to wait and see to hold back to look around see what other people are doing.

Yeah see you know and especially see what the so called important people are doing you know what is the point what are the cool kids think right so that you can kind of then alter your response now I'm not saying this is bad good immoral or anything else I'm just saying it's true right it's it's descriptively true.

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