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Dr. Gena Gorlin's avatar

I think I actually basically agree with you that Project Aristotle’s findings were sound, in that all the particular practices that Edmondson in fact recommends under the heading of “psychological safety” are good. But I think conceptualizing this set of good practices under the heading of “psychological safety” reflects a substantive (i.e., not merely semantic) misunderstanding of *why those practices work* and the principles underlying them, and this misunderstanding in turn is what leads to the misapplications of Edmondson original playbook in practice.

But yes, what you describe as “being psychological mature enough not to act out from insecurity” is much closer to accurately describing the principle. In fact I really like “psychological maturity” as a candidate term, at least at first blush.

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Evgeny Shadchnev's avatar

I think it might be easier to say "We need to work on psychological safety since research shows that it improves performance" than "It looks like the root of our problems is that we're a psychologically immature team" :)

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Dr. Gena Gorlin's avatar

lol- fair enough! Do you think one of the other suggest terms, like “psychological trust” or “bold truth-seeking” or some combination of these, might go over better?

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Evgeny Shadchnev's avatar

No, I’d keep it as is. Those who will misunderstand it, will do so anyway

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