Boeing, A Cautionary Tale In Psychological Safety

Boeing’s CEO has stepped down amidst safety concerns on recent flights. Reports confirm a culture where business results have been prioritized over safety issues, with employees not feeling safe speaking up about safety concerns. This cautionary tale is all too common in Corporate America where employees are often the first to see issues, and often the last to report them.

This is costly for business – not just in managing risk, but in missing out on innovative solutions. For example, in the last decade, Volkswagen and Wells Fargo paid nearly $40B in fines and settlements for issues that could have been avoided if they effectively addressed employee concerns.

When employees do not feel comfortable surfacing issues, there is often a gap in psychological safety. In my interview with Betty Thompson, Chief People Officer at Booz Allen Hamilton, she underscored the importance of psychological safety. “Psychological safety is important because if you are going to get the best from your people – the best thinking, perspectives and skills – people will raise issues. It is important that people know if they see something, they are expected to say something. And, when they speak up, they need to know they will be believed, be heard and trusted and their voice will not be used against them.”

Leaders Role in Psychological Safety

For leaders unsure of how psychologically safe their workplaces are, Thompson recommends leaders reflect on who they have not heard from and whose perspective they are missing and proactively seek out those voices and perspectives. “Psychological safety is built in as a part of our culture, not a bolt on. We intentionally reach out to our employees to see who is missing and what we are missing.”

Thompson’s team also focuses on consistent “nudges” for psychological safety by:

• Proactively looking at survey data for gaps in psychological safety
• Training managers on how to give feedback to people that are not like them
• Leveraging avatar technology to practice hard conversations
• Reminding leaders to genuinely connect with employees on a regular basis to build trust

Managers can create this trust and connection by proactively creating the space for conversation. In my conversation with Dave Moerlein, ex Google leader and author of The Safety Effect, he shared how managers can help employees feel comfortable speaking up by regularly inviting the conversation.

“Every one-to-one and team meeting is an opportunity for the manager to invite new ideas and feedback. If they ask with genuine curiosity and allow their team members to share in the format that feels best for them, the team will comfortably identify and solve known challenges. When they openly invite ideas, share, and listen, the team and company are more likely to avoid the challenges faced by Boeing, Volkswagen, and Wells Fargo.” More often, it is the series of small acts of allyship and these nudges to help employees believe they are psychologically safe in their organization and it makes the behavior contagious to others.

Why Psychological Safety is a Must Have, Not Nice to Have

Thompson highlights, “Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is happening whether people like it or not. The external environment is entering the workplace. It cannot be ignored or left at home. Why not help your employees have this conversation and deepen connection on the team. Not knowing what the issues are is worse. You want the full team’s brain power, and the team has to feel psychologically safe to make that happen.”

Boston Consulting Group’s latest research shows that when leaders build psychological safety, retention significantly increases for women and for employees who identify as Black, Indigenous or people of color (BIPOC), people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ employees and for men not in those groups (white, non-LGBTQ+ men with no disability). Simply put, if leaders want their companies to be relevant to the communities, customers and employees they hope to serve, psychological safety is paramount.

At Boeing, the culture prioritized excessive optimism, overconfidence about ability, confirmation bias and aspiration-based risk taking. Moerlein would describe this as pampering. “When we are confident we have all the answers and are surrounded by like-minded people, we fail to effectively challenge our approach. As a result, we become emboldened to take unnecessary risks. In a culture of high psychological safety, each team member and leadership would be responsible for recognizing this dangerous groupthink, briefly pause to challenge the group’s assumptions, and identify a more effective plan to move forward.”

In a psychologically safe workplace, Boeing could have avoided the fate of Volkswagen and Wells Fargo. This is a reminder to Corporate America that psychological safety is not a nice to have, it is a must have.