Measuring Psychological Safety
Seven pieces on measuring psychological safety — and how to measure people without mistaking them for data.
The route
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Measuring PS
Examines the epistemology and practice of measuring psychological safety: what surveys actually capture, why averages obscure the least safe person, and how the act of measurement itself shapes what…
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Goodhart's / Cobra Effect
Explains Goodhart's Law, Campbell's Law, and the Cobra Effect — what happens when measures become targets.
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Streetlight Effect
Uses the Streetlight Effect — searching where the light is rather than where the thing is — to critique PS measurement.
- Detour: The Case Against Grades
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Beyond Metrics
Uses John Snow's 1854 cholera map as a case study in going beyond quantitative metrics to find answers that numbers obscure.
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The Strange Confidence of 360° Feedback
A critical examination of 360 degree feedback: its murky origins, thin evidence base, and the ways it can undermine the very honesty it promises.
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Qualitative Measurement of PS
Argues that qualitative measurement — conversations, observation, interviews, focus groups — tells you things that quantitative surveys can't: the context, nuance, and reasons behind the numbers.
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Measuring PS: Questions First
A practical guide to the questions to ask before measuring psychological safety.
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Least Safe Person
Argues a team is only as safe as the least safe person — and that measuring PS as an average actively hides the outlier who is suffering.
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Reflections Pt 3: The Safety to Dissent
Part three of the five-year reflections series.
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Principles of Ethical Measurement
Seven principles for measuring people without mistaking them for data, inspired by UKRI's principles of ethical research, and the newsletter that gathers the practice's measurement writing into one p…