Psychological safety

Today, we had a culture workshop at work. The workshops have given me a place to grow my soft skills, increase my awareness, and connect with others at a more human level. So it’s clear to me that I’ve become an advocate of this type of work - the people side of DevOps.

Why should you care?

At Google, they performed a research study called Aristotle in which they sought to find what makes up an effective team at Google. What they found might surprise you - it wasn’t the team with the rockstar people that made an effective team. Instead, it was more important how a team worked together and for that they exhibited psychological safety.

In a team with high psychological safety, teammates feel safe to take risks around their team members. They feel confident that no one on the team will embarrass or punish anyone else for admitting a mistake, asking a question, or offering a new idea.

It feels good to work with smart people. It feels even better when they are not jerks. Working with a jerk and putting up with them could be incredibly taxing, regardless of how talented.