Health care Quote by Adam M. Grant
““the higher the psychological safety in a unit, the fewer errors they made. Why? In the units that lacked psychological safety, health care professionals hid their errors, fearing retribution. As a result, they weren’t able to learn from their mistakes. In the units with high psychological safety, on the other hand, reporting errors made it possible to prevent them moving forward.””
About This Quote
Source Book: Give and Take by Adam M. Grant, 2013
When psychological safety is high, people report errors openly, which enables learning and prevention. When it is low, fear of retribution drives mistakes underground, so the same problems repeat and harm continues.
In simple terms: Safe teams learn from mistakes while fearful teams repeat them.
Key Takeaway
Create safety so people can report and fix errors.
Themes
psychological safety
learning from failure
trust
health care
organizational culture
accountability
Mood
cautious
constructive
hopeful
Type
explanatory
organizational insight
When to use this quote
- hospital team meetings
- performance reviews
- project post-mortems
- team leadership
Key Concepts
error reporting
blame culture vs learning culture
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you react when a teammate admits a mistake?
- What would make it safe to report an error in your workplace?
A Different Perspective
Psychological safety must pair with accountability, otherwise reporting errors alone may not reduce them.
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