Accountability + Psychological Safety = High Performance

“It’s crucial to understand that cultivating a psychologically safe environment does not equate to an unhealthy leniency in terms of behaviors, processes, or outcomes.” – Nash Consulting


Love surprise endings? Here's a true story with a surprising twist:

When Amy Edmondson, a renowned researcher and professor at Harvard Business School, began exploring the concept of psychological safety, she initially focused on hospital settings. One of her primary objectives was to understand how a medical team's sense of psychological safety - the belief that it was “safe” for them to speak freely, express their opinions, and disagree without fear of repercussion or rejection - influenced how often that team made errors.

Imagine the excitement the young, enthusiastic Edmondson must have felt as she prepared to examine the initial study results, confident that the data would clearly support her hypothesis: that greater psychological safety would translate into a lower error rate.

Then imagine how her heart must have sunk when, contrary to her initial expectations, the findings indicated a direct correlation between higher levels of psychological safety and an increase in mistakes!

Of course, Edmondson - true to her academic rigor - didn't stop there. She dug deeper, seeking clarity in this apparent contradiction. Then, the realization dawned on her: teams with higher psychological safety weren't making more mistakes; they were just more transparent in reporting those mistakes! And further analysis revealed that these teams, in fact, made significantly fewer critical errors, leading to better patient outcomes.

In the end, Edmondson's research illuminated a crucial aspect of team dynamics: psychological safety encourages honesty and learning, ultimately reducing significant mistakes and enhancing team performance.


Why Psychological Safety Isn't Just a Fad
Psychological safety – sometimes referred to as “psychological bravery” – is a big deal, folks. Research indicates that psychological safety, although not a panacea for all organizational or group challenges, plays a crucial role in laying the foundation for better team performance and overall employee job satisfaction. It reduces significant mistakes, enhances innovation, creativity, and knowledge sharing, and improves overall team efficacy.

Evaluating Your Team's Psychological Safety
In teams with high levels of psychological safety, you can observe certain behaviors and attitudes that contribute to a positive and productive team environment. Take a look at the following list, and maybe consider engaging in an evaluation of your own team. Take a 30,000-foot view of your group and give a rating of 1 through 5 for each of the following behaviors, with 1 being “I hardly ever see this” and 5 being “I see this quite frequently.” A score of 40 or higher is a great place to be, so give yourself a pat on the back. A score of 30 or lower might indicate significant room for improvement.
 
Behaviors you might see on psychologically safe teams:

1. Open Communication: Team members communicate openly and courageously. They are clearly comfortable sharing ideas, questions, concerns, and even mistakes without fear of ridicule or reprimand.

2. Inclusivity and Diversity of Thought: All opinions and ideas are heard and considered because teams with high psychological safety value diverse perspectives.

3. Willingness to Take Risks: Members are inclined to take calculated risks, as they don't fear negative repercussions from failures or mistakes.

4. Constructive Feedback: Feedback is asked for, given, and received in a constructive manner, focusing on learning and improvement rather than criticism.

5. Engagement and Collaboration: A high level of engagement is evident, with team members actively participating and collaborating on projects and problem-solving. Members are less likely to withdraw or disengage from team activities, as they feel their contributions are valued.

6. Support and Empathy: Team members show empathy and support for each other, creating a caring and understanding environment.

7. Continuous Learning: An environment of continuous learning and development is fostered, with team members feeling safe to express gaps in knowledge and their need for help.

8. Learning Instead of Blame: Blame and finger-pointing are minimal, as the focus is more on learning from mistakes rather than punishment.

9. Healthy Interpersonal Conflict: While disagreements may occur, they are handled constructively without devolving into personal conflicts or hostility. The disagreements, which can still be intense on occasion, are centered around ideas and tasks, not people.

10. Equal Value, Equal Voice: The hierarchical structure does not stifle communication and collaboration, as all team members feel equally valued and heard.

How did your team fare in the assessment? Regardless of your team's current standing, it's important to recognize that as a team leader, your actions set the standard. It's essential to embody the values and behaviors you want to see on the team. While there are numerous strategies to build trust and safety, a vital first step is self-reflection and adjustment of your own behaviors. For more insights and practical tips on this topic, we invite you to explore our related blog post and listen to this episode of our podcast, where we dig deeper into these concepts.
 
The Role of Accountability
When discussing psychological safety with organizational leaders, we often hear this question: "But what about accountability?". There's an assumption that psychological safety and accountability are mutually exclusive, suggesting that to foster an environment where team members feel secure enough to be authentic, vulnerable, and make mistakes, leaders must relax their accountability standards. But this isn’t so! It’s crucial to understand that cultivating a psychologically safe environment does not equate to an unhealthy leniency in terms of behaviors, processes, or outcomes.

Amy Edmondson, whom we met at the beginning of this article, has conducted extensive research on the impact of psychological safety and accountability in teams. Her findings suggest that when high levels of psychological safety are combined with high standards (accountability), it leads to high team performance.

Edmondson’s research laid the foundation for world-class business leader Marie-Claire Ross’s four zones of team performance. Here’s how this works:
 
The Four Zones of Team Performance

1. The Anxiety Zone
What might the culture in a workgroup look and feel like if standards/accountability are high but psychological safety is low?

This zone is the scariest among the four. Team members are in a constant state of fight, flight, or freeze. Although there is a lot of accountability, there is no safety to make mistakes, speak up, and be vulnerable. When team members are constantly in fear, it becomes impossible for them to learn, grow, and self-reflect. Rather than working together, people turn inwards out of self-protection, which leads to high turnover, a lack of open and honest communication, and covered-up mistakes. As a result, both the performance of the team and the well-being of individuals suffer. It’s a rather unpleasant situation. (For a prime example of this zone, watch the film Office Space.)

2. The Comfort Zone
What might the culture in a workgroup look and feel like if standards/accountability are low but psychological safety is high?

The environment is generally stress-free and comfortable...at least at first. Team members feel safe to express their thoughts and ideas without fear of criticism or negative consequences, which fosters a friendly and supportive atmosphere. It sounds pretty peachy, right? But in environments with low accountability and standards, all these warm and fuzzy feels don’t tend to endure. Why is that?

First of all, urgency and motivation for excellence diminishes, often resulting in missed deadlines, poor quality work products, and a string of failures. And failure doesn’t feel good, does it? And secondly, team members’ poor behaviors are generally left unaddressed - and remember the adage we’ve shared here before: What you allow, you teach. So, although the initially “safe” atmosphere might foster a sense of mutual trust and support, the lack of accountability causes the “comfort zone” to feel less and less safe over time, due to unaddressed peer behaviors. We’ve seen work environments that emphasize psychological safety to the exclusion of accountability and expectations, and they end up losing their psychological safety (descending into the “Apathy Zone” - see next item) because people’s behaviors make it impossible to maintain that sense of community and trust. The very thing they are shooting for – psychological safety – they miss because of a lack of accountability.
 
3. The Apathy Zone
What might the culture in a workgroup look and feel like if standards/accountability are low and psychological safety is low?

This one is pretty self-explanatory. This zone is characterized by a lack of interest and concern, disengagement, and people who don’t feel any investment in the relationships, quality of their work, or success of the organization. The bottom line is that people just don’t want to be there and absolutely are not going to be “volunteering their hearts and their brains.”
 
4. The Learning & High-Performance Zone
What might the culture in a workgroup look and feel like if standards/accountability are high and psychological safety is high?

Psychological safety and respectful accountability make up the engine for a dynamic and highly effective team. One that learns from and through each other while rallying behind shared expectations for excellence. One where team members feel supported and free to innovate and learn from errors, while also maintaining a collective understanding of responsibilities, standards, and goals.
 
How to Strike this Balance
Okay, so you get it. Psychological safety plus accountability equals high performance and improved organizational learning. We all want that. But how? How does a leader and team go about creating the conditions for this? We wish we had a silver bullet, but there are no quick and easy ways to achieve this complex balance.

In its essence, the work we do at Nash Consulting is centered around helping leaders and teams achieve this balance. And (shameless plug!) our six-day Managing with Mind and Heart workshop helps leaders learn the skills and mindsets necessary to build highly engaged teams through psychological safety, care and respect, accountability, and collaboration.

(Interested in the Managing with Mind and Heart workshop, but don’t have enough people and/or budget to justify hosting the workshop in-house? No problem; check out the Online Experience, offered every Spring and Fall.)

At the end of the day, creating psychological safety in teams while maintaining high standards and accountability is a delicate balance that requires thoughtful strategies and practical skills. Here is a not-too-short list of concepts and ideas for leaders to help achieve this:

1. Establish Clear Expectations: Begin by setting clear, achievable goals and standards. Make sure these are communicated effectively so that every team member understands what is expected. As Brené Brown says, “clarity is kindness,” and clarity in expectations prevents misunderstandings and fosters a sense of security.

2. Show that You Have the Best Interests of Your Employees at Heart: When employees feel cared about as human beings - when they know that their manager has their back and doesn’t view them as simply a means to an end, but recognizes their very human needs and motivators - they are so much more likely to let down their guard and extend trust.

 3. Moderate the Power Differential: Like it or not, leaders have “power” over those they manage, and those being managed feel that. When we’re in a relationship with someone who has power over us, we do what we can to keep ourselves safe. If a manager exaggerates their power (i.e. through taking up all the air-time in meetings, having a my-way-or-the-highway attitude, or projecting a because-I’m-the-boss vibe), people won’t speak up and will hide their vulnerabilities. This kills any chance of psychological safety. Learn more about the power differential in this blog post and on this podcast episode.

4. Encourage Open Communication: Foster an environment where team members feel safe to voice their opinions, ask questions, and share concerns. This can be done through regular team meetings, one-on-one check-ins, and leaders being available and responsive (one of our Top 15 Management Skills). And an important note: None of those communication channels will make a bit of difference unless leaders demonstrate genuine care for their employees and respect for their ideas.

5. Model Vulnerability: Leaders can build psychological safety by being vulnerable themselves. Admitting mistakes, sharing challenges, and showing humanity make it easier for team members to do the same. This behavior sets a precedent that it’s okay not to be perfect. (Read Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead for a practical and actionable deep dive into vulnerability-based leadership.)

6. Recognize and Reward Effort: Recognize and appreciate the positive qualities, good work, and achievements of team members. This recognition not only boosts morale but also reinforces the behaviors that are aligned with the team’s standards and goals.

7. Provide Constructive Feedback and Hold People Accountable: Leaders and team members need to learn how to give good, constructive feedback. We discuss feedback here and here. Offer constructive feedback that helps employees grow and improve. Frame feedback in a way that is specific, actionable, and focused on behavior, not the individual. And for goodness' sake, give positive feedback!

8. Celebrate Effort and Learning: Recognize not just success, but also the effort and learning that come from failures. Celebrating this encourages a growth mindset and reassures team members that they are valued for their contributions, not just their achievements.

9. Facilitate Team Reflection: Regularly set aside time for the team to reflect on their work, the team dynamics, and the leadership provided. Use this opportunity to sincerely and non-defensively ask for feedback. This reflection can lead to insights on how to improve both psychological safety and accountability.

10. Invest in Professional Development & Resources: Providing opportunities for team members to develop their skills shows that you are invested in their growth. Equip your team with the tools and training they need to meet high standards. This not only improves their competence (enhancing accountability) but also shows that you value them, thereby increasing psychological safety.

11. Encourage Peer Support and Collaboration: Promote a team environment where members support and learn from each other. Set up communities of learning where members can share ideas, skills, and best practices. Design projects and tasks that emphasize collaboration. This fosters a sense of belonging and mutual accountability.

12. Empowerment and Autonomy: Give team members the autonomy to make or collaborate on decisions and take ownership of their work. Empowerment fosters individual accountability and encourages individuals to take responsibility for their actions.

13. Balancing High Expectations with Realistic Goals: Set high but achievable goals. Unrealistic expectations can lead to stress, burnout, and low motivation, which can undermine psychological safety and accountability.

14. Conflict Resolution Skills: Equip the team with conflict resolution skills to ensure that everyone has the tools to address issues constructively. Effective conflict resolution maintains psychological safety while creating an environment for peer accountability. (Check out our blog post series, From Conflict to Collaboration)

15. Tailor Your Approach: Recognize that each team member might have different needs and responses to feedback and communication styles. Each team member is unique and requires different approaches to feel psychologically safe while being held accountable.

We recognize that this list of strategies and behaviors can be overwhelming. Don’t try to tackle it all at once. A wise management guru once said, “If everything is your focus then nothing is.” Identify a few of these you are already rocking at, and make the commitment to double down on them. Then identify one or two that might be a weak spot for you or your team and start there. Consider asking your team, “What individual and group behaviors will help us improve in these areas?” Also, consider the organizational systems and processes that may help contribute to improvements in these areas.
 

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The fusion of psychological safety and accountability in the workplace is not just a theoretical concept but a practical approach to elevating team performance and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. As we've seen, psychological safety empowers team members to speak up, share ideas, and report errors without fear, while accountability ensures that these contributions align with the team’s goals and standards. This blend creates an environment where learning, innovation, and collaboration are not just encouraged but become the norm.

Remember, the goal is not to create a workplace without mistakes or challenges, but to cultivate a setting where these instances are viewed as opportunities for growth and learning. Such a culture not only enhances team performance but also contributes to the overall well-being and satisfaction of every team member.

In embracing this dual approach, we can transform our work environments into spaces of high engagement, innovation, and excellence, where every member feels valued and empowered to contribute their best.