Psychological safety at work
On some teams, people can ask questions, raise concerns, and admit mistakes openly. Researchers call this psychological safety. Amy Edmondson's research and Google's Project Aristotle link psychological safety to how teams learn, communicate, and perform.
About this note
Published Reviewed
Research on how teams speak up, learn from mistakes, and hold one another accountable.
At a glance
Psychological safety is the shared belief that people can take interpersonal risks within their team. Amy Edmondson introduced the team-level concept in her 1999 research. Google's Project Aristotle later identified psychological safety as the most important of five dynamics associated with effective teams.
The research includes Edmondson's original 1999 study, a 2017 meta-analysis, and her 2018 framework connecting psychological safety with accountability.
- What speaking up looks like
- People ask questions, share ideas, discuss mistakes, raise concerns, and challenge ideas respectfully.
- Speaking up and following through
- People can speak openly and still take responsibility for their work and results.
- High psychological safety, low accountability
- Comfort zone: People can speak openly, but expectations and follow-through are limited.
- High psychological safety, high accountability
- Learning zone: People speak openly, learn from mistakes, and take responsibility for results.
Common questions
What does psychological safety mean?
Psychological safety is the shared belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. People feel comfortable asking questions, sharing ideas, discussing mistakes, and raising concerns respectfully. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson introduced the team-level concept in her 1999 research.
What did Project Aristotle find?
Google began Project Aristotle in 2012 and studied 180 teams to understand what made them effective. Google identified psychological safety as the most important of five dynamics associated with effective teams. The findings pointed to how people worked together as more important than their individual characteristics.
How does psychological safety work with accountability?
Psychological safety works alongside accountability. People can question decisions, discuss mistakes, and disagree respectfully while taking responsibility for their work. Edmondson describes this combination as the learning zone.
How can a team measure psychological safety?
Amy Edmondson developed a seven-item measure covering interpersonal risk, mistakes, asking for help, and team relationships. Responses can reveal differences in how team members experience asking for help, discussing mistakes, and raising concerns.
Manager View of Team Conditions | Free
In about 5 minutes, review how your team handles questions, mistakes, concerns, and expectations from your perspective as a manager. Identify which of four manager behaviors to focus on first.
Research and sources
6 sources reviewed. Latest source check: 21 July 2026.
- Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. Introduces team psychological safety, its seven-question measure, and its relationship with learning and error reporting. doi.org
- Kahn, W. A. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692-724. Earlier research exploring psychological safety as a condition for personal engagement at work. doi.org
- Frazier, M. L., Fainshmidt, S., Klinger, R. L., Pezeshkan, A., and Vracheva, V. (2017). Psychological safety: A meta-analytic review and extension. Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 113-165. A review of 136 samples examining relationships between psychological safety, learning, information sharing, engagement, and performance. doi.org
- Newman, A., Donohue, R., and Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521-535. A systematic review of psychological safety research, including team-level measurement and interpretation. doi.org
- Google re:Work. Understand team effectiveness (Project Aristotle). Google's research on team effectiveness, including the five identified dynamics and examples of team survey questions. rework.withgoogle.com
- Edmondson, A. C. (2018). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. Wiley. Explains how psychological safety and accountability work together, including the learning-zone framework. wiley.com
Tools for the next step
Lead discussions, address concerns, and strengthen follow-through with meeting guides and feedback tools.
$89Answer 20 questions about speaking up, mistakes, asking for help, and maintaining standards. Receive a manager-focused assessment in about 5 minutes.
FreeSee how a manager's response to questions, mistakes, and feedback affects the team.
FreeUse the Situation, Behavior, Impact framework to give specific, constructive feedback.
FreeFind scripts and guides for team meetings, feedback, accountability, and difficult conversations.
FreeGuides and scripts for responding to concerns, leading discussions, giving feedback, and following through.
Kits
See something that needs correcting? Send us a note.