When we don’t have safety

While we often talk about psychological safety, we often don’t prioritize fixing the environment to make it better.

We already know from Google’s Project Aristotle that psychological safety is among the most important factors for highly productive teams, yet although this may sound odd, many companies really aren’t interested in having highly effective teams. All they want are teams that are consistent, and predictable. Do we still need to focus on psychological safety for them?

The answer is still yes. Let’s hear from the experts what happens when we don’t have that safety:

When we feel unsafe, Polyvagal Theory tells us that we are either in a mobility response (fight or flight) or a freeze response.

In a mobility response, our prefrontal cortex (PFC) is either partially or fully shut down. “Our prefrontal cortex is partially or fully shut down to allow more resources to be allocated towards fight or flight. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for our higher level thinking so this effectively takes away much of our capacity for higher thought. This affects creativity, flexible problem solving, working memory and other processes. It also has impacts on short-term memory, attention and our ability to make risk-benefit assessments.” (Brann 2022)¹

In a freeze response, our PFC is impacted due to lack of oxygen to the brain. “When you shut down, heart rate slows. Although this reaction works well in reptiles, it is more challenging to mammals, who have a great need to maintain oxygenated blood to their brains. When mammals shut down, there is a massive reduction in oxygenated blood going to the brain. This compromises function and can result in loss of consciousness. What happens to our cognitive function when this occurs? Even if the shutdown is not sufficient to result in a loss of consciousness, it changes our awareness, and there is a massive reduction in cognitive resources. The ability to make decisions and even the ability to evaluate the situation may be compromised.” (Porges 2017)²

In a mobility response, we are more likely to misread social cues, seeing neutral faces as aggressive and fearful faces as angry (Porges 2018)³. Then on top of that, being angry makes us more susceptible to false or misleading information (Greenstein/Franklin, 2020)⁴

We are also distracted by potential dangers and are less capable of following business conversations. “Our middle ear adjusts our hearing to amplify low frequency sounds and to dampen high frequency sounds. This makes it easier to hear predators approaching but more difficult to hear and understand human voices.” (Porges 2017)² This will directly impact our ability to collaborate or hold conversations with others.

We are less capable of effective problem solving. “The very act of preparing for flight or flight uses up oxygen and glucose which are needed for creative insight, analytical thinking, problem solving and short term memory. All of these are impeded.” (Carson/Tiers, 2014)⁵

Then we tire easily. “Our brain is flooded with noradrenaline, which helps us focus but a constant flow of this also tires us out quickly.” (Brann 2022)¹

“Since the PFC is a relatively ‘new’ part of the brain, it is much slower and not nearly as efficient as your nonconscious brain at processing what’s happening in your world. It doesn’t operate with the same strength and quickness as does the amygdala. Your PFC also requires a tremendous amount of resources (oxygen and glucose) to operate effectively and enable you to “brake” any unwanted behavior. Therefore, if you use it too much over a short period, the PFC will fatigue, start to slow, and eventually shut down.” (Porges 2017)²

All of this is bad in the moment, but it gets worse over time if we don’t address it.

“Research shows that with chronic stress, roughly 20% of the hippocampus begins to disintegrate, literally shrinking.” (Carson/Tiers, 2014)⁵

The hippocampus is critical for storing new memories. If we want to be learning, we need this.

“Our body is flooded with cortisol, which while helpful in a short term survival situation, has many negative side effects over the long term. It suppresses the immune system, increases both blood pressure and blood sugar levels, and decreases learning ability.” (Carson/Tiers, 2014)⁵

“To make matters worse, prolonged stress can cause the amygdala to grow in size and strength.” (Arnsten, 2012)⁶ As the amygdala grows, the more likely we’ll trigger the next fear response.

Whether you care about high performing teams or not, not having enough safety in our environment is a real problem. Perhaps it’s time to put some focus here.

Book: Neuroscience for Coaches: How coaches and managers can use the latest insights to benefit clients and teams ↩ ↩²
Book: The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) ↩ ↩² ↩³
Video: Dr. Stephen Porges: What is the Polyvagal Theory ↩
Paper: (Greenstein/Franklin, 2020) Greenstein, M., & Franklin, N. (2020). Anger increases susceptibility to misinformation. Experimental Psychology, 67(3), 202–209. https://doi.org/10.1027/1618-3169/a000489 ↩
Book: Keeping the Brain in Mind: Practical Neuroscience for Coaches, Therapists, and Hypnosis Practitioners ↩ ↩² ↩³
Paper: (Arnsten 2010) Arnsten, Amy F T. “Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function.” Nature reviews. Neuroscience vol. 10,6 (2009): 410-22. doi:10.1038/nrn2648 ↩