Trust Vs Psychological Safety - Understanding the Nuances for a Thriving Team

Is there really a difference between trust and psychological safety and what does this mean when it comes to being a faith driven leader?

In today's dynamic business landscape, fostering a thriving work environment is paramount. Two concepts often thrown around are trust and psychological safety. While seemingly similar, they hold distinct but critically important nuances and a recent Harvard Business Review article by Amy Edmondson, the pioneer of psychological safety research, reignited the debate: which one reigns supreme

What is Psychological Safety?

Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor who coined the term "team psychological safety," defines it as a team's belief that it's safe to take risks, share ideas, and admit mistakes without repercussions [1]. This no doubt seems important in an age where blame and an individual's emotional safety are paramount. A 2022 Harvard Business Review article highlights the importance of this concept, stating it fosters innovation and learning [2].

Think of it as feeling comfortable enough to admit you made a bad call during a brainstorming session. Psychological safety allows for vulnerability in team settings, however it doesn't necessarily guarantee positive outcomes that it purports to achieve.

Trust: The Foundation for Collaboration

Trust, on the other hand, goes beyond vulnerability. It's a character trait we all value and we all want. We highly desire to be able to trust our leaders, trust our team members and trust our ability to work together. It's the belief that others have your best interests at heart, will act competently, and keep their word [3].

Interestingly, a 2023 Pew Research Center study revealed a significant decline in trust in institutions and leadership, highlighting the need to rebuild it within organisations [4].

The Nuances of Difference: Trust is Personal, Safety is Group-Level

According to the literature, the key difference between trust and psychological safety lies in scope. Trust is built on a one-to-one basis. You can trust your colleague to meet deadlines, but that doesn't necessarily mean you feel comfortable admitting a knowledge gap.

Psychological safety pertains to the group dynamic. It's about creating an environment where everyone feels safe to take risks and contribute fully, regardless of their relationship with any one individual. By fostering both trust and psychological safety, managers and leaders can create a truly thriving team environment where collaboration, innovation, and success can flourish.

Or you could think about it this way: psychological safety creates the space for open communication, but trust is the bridge that allows that communication to translate into action.

Psychological safety is a necessary ingredient for open communication, but trust is the glue that binds a team and unlocks its full potential. By prioritising trust-building behaviours, leaders can cultivate a symphony of collaboration, innovation and high performance.

Why Trust Wins: The Multiplier Effect

Consider a team where members feel psychologically safe but don't trust each other's skills or judgment. Or the team that feels psychological safe but don't trust each other when there is an impasse in agreement.

Collaboration, innovation and even team work itself will suffer. Conversely, a team built on trust alone can navigate challenges openly, knowing everyone is working towards the same goal. Psychological safety is inherent in the process of building and actively trusting each other.

Trust works between people, whereas psychological safety is about the individual whose 'psychological safety' could be violated simply by someone making them feel 'unsafe'.

Being vulnerable, building trust by virtue requires you to feel unsafe or unsure about how someone may respond to you. As we become vulnerable and choose to trust, we know where to set boundaries and inevitably build trust.

Given the significant decline of trust in our society, it is little wonder the gap has been filled by the academic construct of psychological safety.

If trust has declined and we are now seemingly replacing it by creating psychological safety within our teams - does that mean we no longer need trust?

Research by PwC found that trust is a significant driver of employee engagement, productivity, and customer satisfaction [5]. It fosters a sense of accountability and a willingness to go the extra mile for colleagues. Deloitte further emphasises the financial benefits of trust, stating that high-trust organisations experience higher profitability and growth [6].

A Christian Perspective

Trust is a core value of our faith and as such we champion our responsibility to build trust with others and to be known as a trustworthy person. Being trustworthy is a highly valued character trait when it comes relationships of all sorts, including doing business.

Trust is a key character trait of God. Scripture is awash with verses that not only implore us to trust in God, but prove His trustworthiness.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 NIV

It's because of this we know that trust is not exclusively Christian. Trust is an immutable human trait. It's the core of our relationship with God and therefore with each other. It's not something that has been constructed or crafted in the hallowed halls of academia. Trust is God and has existed and been highly valued by people for millennia.

However if trust has declined in our world, are we to simply abandon it or worse still replace it with the social construct of psychological safety, which by any other name is - trust?

While it's easy to rush into the latest academically proven business tool or thought position, however we must always begin with a Biblical perspective and examine it accordingly.

In this instance, we are cannot ignore the power of building trust. Not only is it the character of God Himself, but also that of Jesus Christ. Not only is trust the building block of our relationships with each other, trust builds and grows love and we are after all commanded to love one another and to love our enemies.

Trust doesn't build a bridge to psychological safety, it builds a bridge to genuine care and love. Now that's an unshakable foundation for doing business.

Building Trust: A Leadership Imperative

Leaders play a vital role in building trust. Here's how you can cultivate a truly trusting environment without the need to create a space for psychological safety:

Demonstrate Competence: Showcase individual expertise of team members and how each contribute to the whole team's performance to inspire confidence. Encourage individuals to applaud individual expertise as well.
Deliver on Promises: Follow through on your promised commitments, big and small, to build a reputation of reliability within the team and foster this between individual team members as well.
Extend Grace: Acknowledge mistakes as learning opportunities and avoid public shaming.
Empower Your Team: Give employees ownership and autonomy to foster a sense of responsibility. Support each individual to be the very best at what they do - and mean it!

How will you build trust in your team?

Sources

[1] Amy Edmondson, "What Is Psychological Safety?", Harvard Business Review (February 2023)
[2] Harvard Business Review, "High-Performing Teams Need Psychological Safety. Here's How to Create It" (n.d.)
[3] Stephen M. R. Covey, "The Speed of Trust" (Free Press, 2006)
[4] Pew Research Center, "Public Trust in Institutions: 1958-2023" (January 2023)
[5] PwC, "Global CEO Survey 2023: Trust and the New Era of Business" (March 2023)
[6] Deloitte, "Building Trust to Power Performance" (September 2022)