Wells Fargo. Boeing. Volkswagon. NASA. GM. FOX News. Now add the Washington Football Team to the list of organizations that suffered massive failures, with sometimes deadly results, many times damaging mental health effects, directly impacted by the lack of a psychologically safe work environment.

Amy Edmondson, Harvard Business School professor, who coined the phrase, defines psychological safety as a ‘‘shared belief held by team members that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.’’ The bottom line is, employees should not feel fear when speaking up. They should not worry about retaliation, punishment, or negative consequences for speaking up about concerns or issues or sharing ideas.

Attorney Beth Wilkinson independently interviewed over 150 current and former WFT employees. As a result, she discovered that sexual harassment wasn’t the only issue; male and female employees worked in fear.

In 2018 the New York Times reported on the abuse and harassment of cheerleaders and female employees. Snyder himself was accused of the abuse of a couple of women in 2004. He denied the allegations. He also reached a settlement in 2009 with a female executive.

At first blush, the concept could be dismissed as psychobabble. However, it impacts an organization's bottom line by increasing productivity, according to Gallup. Psychologically safe organizations experience a 27% reduction in turnover, a 40% reduction in safety incidents, and a 12% increase in productivity.

After being assessed a $1 million fine for violations of the New York City Human Rights Law repeatedly, FOX News was in the headlines recently. The investigation covered discrimination, sexual harassment, and other misconduct in the workplace. The N.Y.C. Commission on Human Rights investigated the network starting in July 2016 and filed the complaint in December 2018.

The key point is that FOX will now waive arbitration, which will allow aggrieved employees to file lawsuits publicly. One principle of Psychological Safety is giving voice to employees. They also agreed to offer training. I advocate for Psychological Safety Training, too, and have reached out to team leadership, as well as the NFL commissioner to offer my thoughts and services.

The Washington Football Team’s toxic culture shows why psychological safety training is important in all businesses. Employees should feel safe to speak up without feeling fear. Employees should not fear retaliation, punishment, ridicule, retribution, bullying, harassment, threats to their job status, being ostracized, and outcast at work when they speak up.

Speaking up could be complaining about and reporting harassment, bullying, unsafe work practices, rules, sharing a new and innovative idea, anything and everything that an employee wants to say about their work situation, co-workers, or even sharing management concerns. If employees are afraid to speak out, the culture will be toxic, turnover will be high, and the company can end up in the headlines when the situation implodes or explodes. They may also end up in court.

These workplaces were not psychologically safe for employees. However, with proper training of both the management and employees, these issues will be minimized. If employees know their concerns will be heard, they will speak up. Likewise, management will be trained to listen to employee concerns and know that their behavior will be in the spotlight.

For companies to reduce their liability, increasing retention, recruitment, profits, and morale, this training can also help increase worksite safety. My goal is to tie safety to the concept, reduce incidents, accidents, and add safe work practices and principles. A strong team is core to achieving these goals.

According to the New York Times Magazine, Google sought to build the perfect team. They thought that might look like grouping similar people with similar traits on the same teams, encouraging employees to socialize after work, group those with the same hobbies, etc. However, they could not establish similar patterns. It turns out they were wrong. After spending years and millions of dollars on studying the making of the perfect team, it boiled down to one simple concept—psychological safety.

The bottom line distinguished one team from the other successful teams from unsuccessful ones: how team members treated each other.

I just completed Psychological Safety training for managers & staff for the D.C. Department of Transportation. It was a new concept that management wanted to implement during June’s Safety Month. They planned to start with management. My job was to explain the concept of creating a psychologically safe environment, share examples of environments that were not safe, and layout an action plan to implement reporting processes and measures that ensured employees were heard and felt comfortable enough to speak out.

Then my job was to educate the field workers, and staff about ways managers would be reaching out to them to encourage them to speak up and speak out about concerns they had on the job. They had to understand that this feedback was welcome and would be met with respect.

I add the element of safety; employees' personal safety, even off the clock, is an employer's business. Safety on the job is a crucial part of my training, too. I tie it together and show how it impacts the bottom line. But, the organization and management have to buy in.

Toxic culture starts at the top of an organization. ESPN reports that although some leadership accused of harassment in the WFT case were fired, many decried the decision to leave the team’s ownership in place under the man who allowed such behavior to grow and even expand to upper levels of management. The $10 million fine is considered pocket-change for Dan Snyder, the billionaire team owner.

Snyder took responsibility for not being aware of the environment that he allowed to fester based on his inattention to the problem. However, he understood that it was the people he hired and that he did nothing to change the culture when he became aware of the issues. As a result, he stepped back from the leadership role and pledged to add training.

These stories and cases are preventable. Consult with a recognized safety expert who will assess the environment in your company, then offer training that will help make sure your company doesn’t land in court or the headlines. More importantly, make sure your employees are happy, productive, and safe. Let’s talk.