The author has made an interesting argument for managing psychological safety from a professional context for both individuals and firms. In many cases, this is has been sidelined without assessing the scope of its manifestation.Radhakrishnan S, the author is a software engineer and through his personal and professional journey he recognised the importance of psychological safety in a work environment. He argues that professionals often join a firm with some inherent qualities and are later exposed to those that are built in the organisation’s culture. But how well do both complement each other and how to help employees open up and speak out is not much traversed upon in companies. This leads to an exciting question: whether grooming and education fail to prepare individuals as future employees and leaders.
Long term growth through participative culture
The book is lucid and brief and may require the reader to be familiar with global corporate events. For example, the citation of Jack Welch’s leadership style and performance of GE during his time, to changes that happened when Jeff Immelt took over, demonstrates the lack of psychological safety among different stakeholders. This is a popular inference rather than an assertive statement. A similar example, is that of Nokia. In both, the impact of expresssing one’s view, that has on an organisation’s success and otherwise is dealt in detail. The author repeatedly mentions that financial or market share gain could be short-term focused or transactional. At the same time, sustainability is paramount, which can happen through innovations and ensuring psychological safety, leading to open communication and a highly participative culture. The example of Toyota and its culture have been cited as the reason for its epitome in quality, where a worker on the line can stop the entire unit if he finds something odd.
The book starts with three scenarios – the space shuttle Columbia (compromised wing failure), Avianca Flight 052 (inability to escalate crisis of fuel drain) and Therac –25 (software failure in managing dosages leading to heat burns and deaths) – arguing the cases were due to lack of psychological safety. These incidents highlight instances where crucial doubts were not raised due to fear and it eventually led to grave situations. The readers will likely be emotionally connected with the book in the first few pages because of such mentions and possible correlation of such situation in one’s career and life. That’s the success of the author’s writing.
Open communication is core
Another vital engagement factor of the book is the sharp connection between decision-making situations, mainly in the IT industry, and project management. Even if the reader is not familiar with the problem, they can still understand the context and the author’s views. The lack of safety in open communication may lead to a firm’s failure, which is the crux of the issue. I too agree with it, especially in the modern era of information and data overload. The inferences and chances of failure must be highlighted and deliberated for a healthy firm. The failure may be a competitive disadvantage, and the contrary is likely accurate, as the author gives a few examples. The argument is that the firm may need to notice the lack of openness in culture as it is deceptive to financial success. It would have been too late when a competitor used an ignored strategy to overpower the firm’s market share.
Cultivating psychological safety is likely to take time. It’s like growing a tree that takes longer to yield, but the seeds must be sown. Top leadership should demonstrate a culture of open communication and encourage the same. The book cites a wide variety of cases making it an enjoyable quick read, but for sure, adoption as a practice would take some time. The book will be valuable for both management students and professionals where each can get to understand the other’s world a bit better.
