Trust and Psychological Safety

Trust and psychological safety – It’s complicated!

In my earlier post on effective teams I quote the three factors of team dynamics that are vital for effectiveness – trust, psychological safety and team cohesion.

(Link to the post: Evidence for High Performing Teams)

Helping teams and groups become more effective means exploring the difference between trust and psychological safety.

Here’s a neat quote from the CIPD Paper on High Performing Teams:

“Psychological safety focuses on the actions we are willing to take ourselves, whereas trust focuses on the actions we believe others will take.”

Amy Edmondson explores these differences in her paper on Psychological Safety, Trust and Learning in Organizations.

I’m continuing to explore this topic and apply the learning to my own #teamcoaching and #teamdevelopment practice.

In a world where deep thinking seems to be losing currency, I believe we need to embrace learning as an applied practice.

After all, psychological safety is tied to learning!

What do you think?