Standard : Discovery operates in psychological safety
Purpose and Strategic Importance
This standard ensures discovery activities happen in a climate of psychological safety, where team members feel free to share ideas, test unproven concepts, and challenge assumptions without fear.
It supports our policy "Psychological Safety in Discovery". Without this standard, teams risk surface-level thinking and missed opportunities due to fear of speaking up.
Strategic Impact
- Richer and more diverse contributions in discovery
- Faster learning from experiments, including failed ones
- Higher team engagement and creativity
Risks of Not Having This Standard
- Valuable ideas remain unspoken
- Teams become risk-averse and conservative
- Limited innovation and learning
CMMI Maturity Model
Level 1 – Initial
- People & Culture: Fear of failure dominates. Voices are silenced.
- Process & Governance: Discovery processes discourage dissent.
- Technology & Tools: No tools for anonymous or safe contributions.
- Measurement & Metrics: No tracking of team safety or inclusivity.
Level 2 – Managed
- People & Culture: Some leaders encourage openness, but inconsistently.
- Process & Governance: Retrospectives occasionally surface safety concerns.
- Technology & Tools: Limited tools (e.g. anonymous surveys) used reactively.
- Measurement & Metrics: Informal feedback highlights lack of safety.
Level 3 – Defined
- People & Culture: Teams openly share ideas, mistakes, and learnings.
- Process & Governance: Discovery processes deliberately create space for all voices.
- Technology & Tools: Collaboration platforms ensure equal participation.
- Measurement & Metrics: Psychological safety tracked through surveys and sessions.
Level 4 – Quantitatively Managed
- People & Culture: Safety actively measured and improved. Failures celebrated as learning opportunities.
- Process & Governance: Systematic facilitation techniques (e.g. Liberating Structures) applied.
- Technology & Tools: Tools anonymise contributions and surface quieter voices.
- Measurement & Metrics: Quantitative data links safety to innovation and engagement.
Level 5 – Optimising
- People & Culture: Psychological safety becomes cultural foundation. Teams model safe behaviours across the org.
- Process & Governance: Discovery practices continuously evolve to improve safety.
- Technology & Tools: AI-enabled insights detect participation imbalances and prompt interventions.
- Measurement & Metrics: Continuous learning loops use safety metrics to refine practices.
Key Measures
- Psychological safety survey scores
- % of team members actively contributing in discovery activities
- Number of new ideas surfaced per discovery session
- Evidence of failed experiments celebrated and shared