Remember that gut-clenching fear of speaking up in class? Organizational psychologist Rafael Chiuzi reveals how that same feeling shows up in the workplace, limiting productivity and the free exchange of ideas. Backed by decades of research and hands-on consulting, he unpacks the science of psychological safety — and shares three actionable steps to build teams where curiosity thrives and courage replaces fear.For a chance to give your own TED Talk, fill out the Idea Search Application: ted.com/ideasearch.Interested in learning more about upcoming TED events? Follow these links:TEDNext: ted.com/futureyouTEDSports: ted.com/sportsTEDAI Vienna: ted.com/ai-viennaTEDAI San Francisco: ted.com/ai-sf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. We all know about physical safety and what it means to set up work and personal environments to feel safe. But what does it mean to feel psychologically safe?
In this talk, organizational psychologist Dr. Rafael Chiusi uses real-life examples to reflect on the hazard of fear-based cultures and why fostering psychological safety creates better results at work and beyond.
When I was a kid, I remember feeling terrified. during classes when the teacher would launch a stealth attack called oral pop quiz. I can still feel the sweat in my hands and how fast my heart was beating. And I remember also how relieved I was when my name was not called out that day. I was deeply afraid of looking stupid or not having the right answer.
And it felt like the entirety of my character was being assessed in those dreadful five minutes. When I look back, I realize that feeling was not only present during the pop quizzes, it was present the entire time. So if I didn't understand something, instead of asking, I used to think, just shut your mouth and you can ask a friend later. This fear of looking inadequate or below average
haunted me for a long, long time. And it took me years to realize that I was not alone in that feeling. It turns out, many grown-ups feel like that too. In April 26th of 1986, a team of terrified, tired, overworked engineers were trying to desperately solve a problem with reactor number four of the Chernobyl nuclear plant after a disastrous emergency exercise.
When approaching the director, they were received with yelling and threats. Now fast forward to around June of 2018, and after seeing many of his coworkers burning out due to an overwhelming work schedule and also knowing that this could lead to potentially fatal errors. Ed Pearson, one of the senior managers at Boeing for the 737 MAX project, decided to break the silence.
Go to the bosses, straight to the top. Nobody listened. And almost a year later, more than 300 people died in two separate 737 MAX accidents. That also mentioned later on how stifling the culture was, and it was silencing most of the concerned employees. When working with a client a few years ago, I remember seeing on the wall an impeccable record of health and safety awards.
I saw four years in a row they won the award, but nothing after that. So I asked the COO what happened, to which he only replied, oh, we learned a lesson. So his management team became so obsessed with winning the award that the most important thing they could do was to check all the boxes.
So the following year, many employees were incapacitated or even died as a consequence of several workplace accidents. When talking to the employees, many of them said they could not report nonconformities to the managers, Otherwise, they would be ostracized or labeled as inefficient. So they took the only route possible, faked the numbers to win the award.
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