Editor’s note: Employers Council offers members access to a library of books. This article is part of an ongoing series to introduce members to the collection.
A trending concept in workplace culture and business leadership literature is psychological safety, “a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes,” according to Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School.
I reference this concept in resources and articles I draft for members and in Speakers Bureau presentations to the community, such as Workplace Conflict and Generations. Likewise, my colleagues from our HR Consulting and Organizational Development teams make similar references in their work; see the article links below.
To learn more about this topic, I purchased The Psychological Safety Playbook to add to the Employers Council library collection and read it over the holidays. To help you decide if this is a book for you to read in 2024, I will share my thoughts.
The book is an easy read. I read it on a short flight between Salt Lake City and Denver, including during some down time in the concourse. It is organized into modules, so the reader can easily bounce around as necessary. It offers specific, practical, action steps that anyone (leaders or others) can quickly use to improve communications. Recommended reading lists are provided to dive deeper into the research behind the content. Authors Karolin Helbig and Minette Norman are both leadership consultants with experience in the private sector; their work leverages research and practices developed by others.
A gap in the book’s approach is that not all employees will respond to the concept. Workplace politics may exist that run counter to the book’s core concept that people act in good faith. If there are people in the workplace who act in bad faith or have hostile or ulterior motives, I wonder if this book’s tactics would be helpful.
Overall, the book offers value to anyone (leaders, managers, front line staff) seeking to improve their workplace interactions and maybe even those in their personal life. Straightforward strategies to improve communications, interactions, relationships, and teamwork are motivating in their simplicity and worth a try. I know I will give them a go.
The Psychological Safety Playbook is available to check out from the Employers Council library; contact us for assistance. Browse the entire Lending Library collection for more titles.
To learn more about psychological safety, consider these resources and articles:
To support psychological safety in your workplace, consider these classes and services:
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