Establish Psychological Safety in Incident Reviews

This standard mandates the establishment of psychological safety in incident reviews to encourage open communication and learning without fear of blame.

1. Establish Psychological Safety in Incident Reviews:

Teams must feel safe to share mistakes and challenges without fear of blame. This approach fosters a culture of learning and improvement.

• 1.1 Blame-Free Environment:
  • 1.1.1 Leadership Tone:
    • Engineering leaders must set the tone for a blame-free environment.
    • Promote a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
  • 1.1.2 Facilitator Guidance:
    • Ensure facilitators guide discussions towards learning and improvement rather than personal accountability.
    • Automate the generation of facilitator guidelines.
• 1.2 Language and Approach:
  • 1.2.1 Blame-Free Language:
    • Avoid language that implies fault (e.g., "Who broke this?" → "What contributed to this outcome?").
    • Standardise blame-free language in incident reports.
  • 1.2.2 Learning Focus:
    • Focus on identifying systemic issues and improving processes.
    • Automate the tracking of learning outcomes.

By establishing psychological safety, organisations can encourage open communication and learning during incident reviews.

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