Welcome to the Cadence Culture dialogue.
It's a dialogue on how we can be culture builders in our workplaces.
To be culture builders, there are skill sets that we need to strengthen. For example, the ability to communicate what organisational culture is and its value to people and business growth, the ability to create psychological safety, and to have quality conversations.
We invite you on this journey with us.
Psychological Safety
Teams with strong psychological safety are learning organisations where there’s significant business and people growth, innovation at all levels, strong teamwork, and the ability to attract top talent.
Calvin Yeo, Co-Founder
Transcript
Calvin: Welcome to the Cadence Culture Dialogue. This is a dialogue about how we can be culture builders in our workplaces. The previous dialogue was about the quality of conversations, so do check it out if you missed it.
Eddie: Today’s dialogue is about psychological safety. Please share your questions, perspectives, and comments with us.
Calvin: Eddie, let me begin with a question. Everyone is familiar with physical safety at work, but what is psychological safety?
Eddie: Quick story: In 2012, Google started Project Aristotle to uncover what makes a team effective. They spent two years studying 180 teams. After two years, they revealed five key factors that make a team effective, and the underpinning factor—the most important one—is psychological safety.
Calvin: That’s when the whole corporate world started paying attention to psychological safety, and everyone began trying to figure out what it means. So, Eddie, define psychological safety for us.
Eddie: Here, I’d reference Dr Amy Edmondson, a Harvard professor credited with coining the term psychological safety. Psychological safety is the experience of feeling safe to take interpersonal risks with others. This includes expressing ideas, asking questions, seeking help, sharing diverse views, admitting mistakes, and holding each other accountable.
It’s not just about taking risks with one or two colleagues we have strong, trusting relationships with—it’s about creating a psychologically safe environment where people generally feel secure enough to be open and candid with one another.
Calvin: Wow. I’m a big fan of Dr Amy Edmondson’s work. Over the last two decades, she has curated and showcased many examples of different teams and organisations—those with weak psychological safety and those with strong psychological safety—and the difference is like night and day.
Teams with strong psychological safety are learning organisations where there’s significant business and people growth, innovation at all levels, strong teamwork, and the ability to attract top talent. On the other hand, organisations with weak psychological safety have declined or even ceased to exist.
Eddie: Calvin, can you share with us a business example?
Calvin: Well, I’ve spent 17 years in the telecoms business, so let me share a telecoms example. Many of us may have owned a Nokia phone in the past, or at least heard of them. Their decline and disappearance was largely due to a fearful and emotional climate within the organisation, where employees were too afraid to speak up about the threats posed by Apple and Google in smartphone development.
When Apple and Google launched their smart devices, Nokia suffered a massive market share loss, losing more than 2 billion euros. This ultimately led them, in 2013, to sell their devices and services platform to Microsoft.
Eddie: From being the number one market leader to selling their business—yeah, that’s a huge fall.
Calvin: Eddie, based on your experience, what do you think is preventing leaders from creating psychological safety at work?
Eddie: You know, nobody intentionally sets out to erode psychological safety. However, the reality is that our intentions often don’t align with our behaviours, and we’re not always aware of it. I’ve fallen into this trap in the past. As a passionate and experienced consultant, I’m quick to provide solutions in any discussion, and I often communicate in a passionate tone. What I didn’t realise was that my behaviour was being perceived as strong and not open to others’ ideas.
Thankfully, one of my trusted colleagues gave me feedback that raised my awareness and gave me the opportunity to adjust my behaviour. This made me
realise that the first step in building psychological safety is becoming aware of how others perceive our actions.
Calvin: Great, thank you for sharing that, Eddie. How do you think we can gain greater awareness, particularly in relation to psychological safety?
Eddie: One way is to create a feedback cadence with colleagues—regularly seeking feedback about how they feel and think regarding the way we approach things. For example, asking, “How do you feel about the way I communicated in the meeting?” or “How do you feel about my contributions to this discussion?”
When we actively invite feedback, show genuine interest in hearing others’ input, and respond positively and with gratitude, people start to see how open we are. This helps them feel safe enough to speak their minds.
Calvin: Wow, that’s a great point. Feedback cadence—I think that’s something we all need. I also remember working with clients who benefited from a Fearless Organization Scan. This tool, based on Dr Amy Edmondson’s research, combines survey results with a facilitated conversation. Teams can use it to identify areas for improvement and work together to strengthen psychological safety.
When we actively invite feedback, show genuine interest in hearing others’ input, and respond positively and with gratitude, people start to see how open we are. This helps them feel safe enough to speak their minds.
Eddie Eng, Co-Founder
Eddie: Calvin, what are the common pitfalls you’ve observed when leaders try to build psychological safety at work?
Calvin: Well, one pitfall I’ve personally encountered is waiting for psychological safety to be perfect before speaking up—expecting to feel completely safe before saying anything. Sometimes, it even led to blaming others for the lack of psychological safety when I or we failed to take responsibility for speaking up and taking action.
To avoid this pitfall, it’s important to complement the building of psychological safety with the courage to speak up. This has been a growth area for me personally. I’ve had to take responsibility to voice my thoughts even when I didn’t feel entirely safe. To do this, I reminded myself of the importance of why I was speaking up—what I was speaking up for—and how that purpose outweighed the perceived risks.
At the same time, I’ve learned to understand that rejection or disagreement from others when I speak up doesn’t diminish who I am as a person. It’s about being secure in my identity.
Eddie: Wow, I think it’s so important to be secure in our identity. That’s absolutely right. Fostering a culture of psychological safety is key to unlocking the full potential of a team. We’re continuing to gather best practices for leaders to cultivate psychological safety at work, and we’d love to share them with you. Come and journey with us as friends of Cadence Culture—click the link below to find out more.
Calvin: Yes, we’d love for you to join us as friends of Cadence Culture. And do look out for our next Cadence Culture Dialogue. See you soon!
Eddie: Goodbye.
