Psychological Safety

Biological Parallel

Meerkat sentries take turns standing exposed on high ground, scanning for predators while the group forages below—but they only do this when previously injured sentries weren't abandoned during attacks. If the group has a history of fleeing without alarm calls, sentries refuse the risk. Psychological safety (the confidence that vulnerability won't be punished) enables sentries to take personal risk for collective gain. Edmondson found the same mechanism: teams only expose uncertainty, mistakes, and learning when past vulnerability wasn't exploited.