Psychological Safety and Trust

At LIW, we understand the importance trust plays in developing strong relationships. Building a culture of trust and psychological safety is critical for business leaders to get the most out of their teams, and to ultimately be successful. Various research from the 1970s to today backs this up. It’s why our leadership programs centre around promoting an open and honest culture, where all ideas can be shared and where failures are seen as an opportunity to learn and develop. In this piece we look at the science and research which demonstrate the impact of trust and psychological safety in relationships, and why they play such a critical role in effective leadership.

Some of the key work this download explores include:

• The trust equation by David Maister and Charles Greenin
• David Putnam's concept of social capital
• Amy Edmondson’s initial work on psychological safety
• Google’s Project Aristotle
• Timothy Clarke's ‘The Four Stages of Psychological Safety’

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Scientific research clearly demonstrates the role and benefits of building a culture of trust in both our personal and professional relationships. Thanks to the work of Paul Zak, we know that companies which score high on trust benefit from higher productivity, more engaged employees, less burnout and fewer sick days than low trust companies. For professionals looking to become effective leaders, his experimentation work to identify eight management behaviours gives us practical ways to develop trust with teams. The work of Amy Edmondson and Timothy Clark builds further on this, introducing us to the concept and importance of creating an environment of psychological safety in the workplace. At LIW, our leadership development programs are all about giving aspiring leaders practical ways to develop and foster a culture of trust with their teams. If you’re interested in providing pragmatic leadership programs to your teams, get in touch today.