The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety

CONCLUSIONAvoiding Paternalism and Exploitation

Just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.—Toni Morrison

Figure 13. Dangers that appear when levels of respect and permission are low

Psychological safety requires both respect and the permission to participate. One without the other creates a dangerous imbalance that hurts people in different ways. A serious deficiency in permission pushes a team into the gutter of paternalism, whereas a serious deficiency in respect moves it into the gutter of exploitation. (See figure 13, previous ...