Post-mortems are opportunities to learn and get value from incidents in production - value that we have already paid for upfront; they are opportunities to improve our understanding of our systems, both social and technological.

For our post-mortems to be effective and work well, they need to be blameless - so that we stay curious and ask good questions, and so that people feel safe to speak up. Being blameless really does matter!

Psychological safety is about making people feel safe to speak up, enabling and empowering them to make full use of all their talents and creativity at work, and not be silenced by fear. To thrive in today’s complex and fast-moving world, organizations need to make the most of their people; they need them to bring their brains and their voices to work. For that to happen, they first need to create psychological safety.

In her book ‘The Fearless Organization’, Amy Edmondson describes exactly what psychological safety is, the positive benefits it can bring for organizations and for individuals, and gives us a clear framework for how we can start along the road - zig-zagging though it may be! - to create psychological safety in our own workplaces.

If, like me, you’ve heard the term ‘psychological safety’, have wondered what it’s all about and are interested in finding out more, then you should definitely read this book.