In 2012, Google conducted research to identify the factors that determine effective teams. This research, now famously known as Project Aristotle, analyzed hundreds of teams and individual members to crack the code on what enables some to operate at high levels while others flounder. What their study revealed is something Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson had discovered almost two decades prior: the most important factor for high performing teams is psychological safety. That is to say, teams perform better when their members feel safe taking risks and being vulnerable with each other, without fear of punishment. Google’s watershed study brought light to Edmondson’s groundbreaking research and thrust psychological safety into the zeitgeist—and onto the tips of tongues of scholars, executive coaches, and business leaders alike across a wide array of categories.
However, despite the adoption of this critical contribution to business practice, far too often, safety is erroneously mistaken for comfort—and the two couldn’t be more different. Safety is a matter of protection from harm, as in “I feel safe to jump off this rock” because the likelihood of harm is mitigated. Comfort, on the other hand, is a state of ease, where I feel comfortable jumping off the rock because it’s easy. You see the difference? One embraces risk because the consequences are low, while the other sees no risk at all. One leads to breakthroughs and the other leads to routine.
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Comfort, as the radio broadcaster Stan Dale once declared, is a “plush-lined coffin” that prevents individuals from stretching themselves, which subsequently mitigates the possibilities of their collective collaboration. With all the best intentions, I’m certain, many leaders attempt to foster a psychologically safe environment by ensuring their employees feel comfortable in the office. As such, they prioritize niceness and harmony over candor and conflict, unknowingly eroding the necessary conditions that help us do hard things and, ultimately, lead to innovations within an organization. Difficult things aren’t always comfortable, but that’s where growth and advancement happen. Therefore, our aim should not be to promote comfort from hard things, but rather, to create a space where people feel safe enough to try.
I see this in the classroom every day. Some of the brightest minds across the globe enroll in the MBA program at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, to increase their business acumen and venture out into the world as the “leaders and best.” When these students enter the classroom, they expect to be challenged with new ideas and provocations because they know, intuitively, that this is where the learning happens. If they’re presented with something they already know, something easy, they don’t learn much at all. Therefore, in an effort to foster an environment where learning is optimized, the classroom can’t be comfortable (i.e. easy); it must be challenging enough to stretch them but safe enough for them to stretch.
The psychologist Lev Vygostky, best known for his pioneering work on cognitive development, refers to this sweet spot of difficulty as the Zone of Proximal Development. This zone represents tasks that sit just outside of a student’s skill level and challenges them to stretch further with the assistance of a teacher who possesses greater knowledge or ability. It’s not easy, but it’s not impossible. It’s achievable but you have to jump to do it. If people don’t feel safe, they typically won’t jump. Therefore, it is the job of the instructional leader to facilitate a classroom environment where students feel protected enough to fail. Why? Because in these safe spaces, growth happens and the classroom improves.
So, students ask “dumb questions” without fear of embarrassment. They say what could potentially be the wrong answer because they know if they miss the mark, they won’t be punished for it. They do it not because it’s easy, but because it’s not dangerous. The same thing goes in our organizations. If we want people to take big swings, to jump off the rock of comfort into the lake of big ideas, then we must reduce the risk, not the challenge. The differences lead to wildly different outcomes.
We invited Sherlen Archibald, co-founder of idea agency We The Roses, onto the FROM THE CULTURE podcast to explore how his organization uses natural settings to foster safe environments that stretch teams to uncover new ideas and creative explorations. Check out the full episode here.
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