Managers: Solve the Right Problem
Despite widespread efforts, psychological safety initiatives are failing to improve workplace culture, as evidenced by stagnant Gallup poll numbers. The core issue lies not at the team level, but in a fundamental misdirection of management’s focus from maximizing shareholder value to prioritizing customer value. Organizations that shift their focus to creating value for customers are not only more successful financially but also foster more congenial workplaces, highlighting a critical need for managers to redefine their objectives.
Points clés
- Harvard Business School professors Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey authored “What People Get Wrong About Psychological Safety” in the May-June issue of Harvard Business Review.
- Professor Edmondson’s best-selling book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth (2017), popularized the concept of psychological safety.
- A 2017 Gallup poll revealed that only 3 in 10 employees strongly agreed their opinions counted at work, a number that has barely changed eight years later.
- The 2025 article identifies six common misperceptions about psychological safety, including that it means being nice, getting your way, or guaranteeing job security.
- The primary problem hindering psychological safety efforts is the focus on the team level, rather than the overarching organizational structure.
- For the past 50 years, management’s central objective has been cost-cutting to maximize shareholder value, a philosophy still taught in business schools.
- Approximately 20% of public companies have shifted their focus from cost-cutting to creating value for customers.
- Value-creating enterprises, leveraging digital technology and AI, outperform traditionally managed firms.
- Two-thirds of blue-chip firms in the Dow Jones Industrial Average are currently performing below average as of July 2025.
À retenir
So, it turns out that all those “psychological safety” workshops and team-building retreats might have been a bit of a waste of time, unless they were accompanied by a radical shift in corporate philosophy. Who knew that focusing on making customers happy instead of just making shareholders richer would actually make everyone happier, including the employees? It’s almost as if common sense, when applied to business, can lead to—gasp!—better results. Managers, if you’re feeling obsolete, perhaps it’s time to stop trying to squeeze blood from a stone and start actually creating something valuable. Your teams (and your bottom line) will thank you.
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