When Google — one of the most data-driven companies in the world — set out to engineer the “perfect team,” they did what you’d expect: they gathered data. Lots of it.
In 2012, they launched Project Aristotle, a multi-year internal study analyzing over 180 teams to uncover what makes some teams thrive while others stall. They looked at nearly every variable imaginable — personality types, communication patterns, educational backgrounds, meeting behaviors, diversity, even how often teammates had lunch together.
And the result?
None of those factors consistently explained team success.
Not intelligence.
Not work style.
Not seniority.
Not even shared goals.
The breakthrough came when researchers stumbled upon the work of Dr. Amy Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor who introduced the concept of psychological safety — the belief that a team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.
What Is Psychological Safety?
Psychological safety means you can speak up, ask questions, share ideas, or admit mistakes without fear of embarrassment, punishment, or rejection. It’s not about being nice. It’s about creating an environment where people can think, challenge, learn, and grow — without fear.
Google discovered that the most effective teams had one thing in common:
They made it safe for people to be vulnerable.
In other words, it wasn’t who was on the team.
It was how the team behaved.
The 3 Hidden Behaviors of Strong Teams
Google’s researchers found that the strongest teams shared three key behaviors:
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Equal air time — Everyone speaks and is heard, regardless of role or seniority.
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Social sensitivity — Team members notice and respond to each other’s emotions.
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Comfort with vulnerability — People feel safe to say: “I don’t know,” “I disagree,” or “I made a mistake.”
These behaviors created trust, openness, and psychological safety — and in turn, they unlocked creativity, resilience, and learning.
The Impact at Google
After embracing these insights, Google began to change how it worked:
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Managers were trained to encourage voice and participation.
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Meeting structures were updated to ensure inclusion and equality.
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Feedback was reframed to build trust, not fear.
The result wasn’t just warmer teams — it was smarter teams. Teams that learned faster, adapted better, and produced better work together.
What This Means for Your Team
Whether you’re building deep-tech startups, managing innovation pipelines, or leading cross-functional teams under pressure — psychological safety is not optional. It’s the invisible infrastructure of high-performance collaboration.
It allows people to:
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Speak up about blind spots.
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Offer bold ideas.
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Admit when they’re stuck.
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Ask for help.
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Grow from feedback instead of hiding from it.
And in fast-paced, high-stakes environments like ours, that’s the difference between performing and merely surviving.
How Cura Supports Psychological Safety
At Cura, we believe wellness isn’t just physical. It’s about creating environments where people are mentally and emotionally equipped to succeed — individually and collectively.
Psychological safety is a core pillar of our leadership workshops, team diagnostics, and coaching frameworks.
Because if innovation is the goal, safety is the platform.
Final Thought
Google set out to find the formula for a perfect team.
What they found instead was a powerful truth:
“What really matters is less about who is on the team, and more about how the team works together.”
Let that shape how we lead, how we listen, and how we grow.
🔗 Original article by Charles Duhigg in The New York Times Magazine:
Read here