Clark, Timothy R. _The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation_. First edition. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc, 2020. # Progressive Summary # Key Points # Resonances Inclusion safety: ![[Witch hunt experiment.png]] # Oppositions # Questions / Comments # Quotes ## Inclusion Safety > ... the basic decision to include or exclude is not about skill or personality, although those things can enhance your ability to include. It’s more about intent than technique. You can’t legislate it, regulate it, train it, measure it, or gimmick it into existence. It doesn’t answer to those forces. It’s an act of will that flows from the empire of the heart. > Inclusion safety is not about worthiness. It’s about treating people like people. It’s the act of extending fellowship, membership, association, and connection—agnostic of rank, status, gender, race, appearance, intelligence, education, beliefs, values, politics, habits, traditions, language, customs, history, or any other defining characteristic. Inclusion marks passage into civilization. > Withholding inclusion safety is a sign that we’re engaged in a fight with our own willful blindness. We’re self-medicating with enchanting tales about our distinctiveness and superiority. If it’s a mild case of snobbery, that may be easy to dismiss. But if it’s a more severe case of narcissistic supremacy, that’s a bigger problem. And then there’s everything in between. > In our social units, we should create an environment of inclusion before we begin to think about judgments at all. Worth precedes worthiness. There’s a time and a place to judge worthiness, but when you allow someone to cross the threshold of inclusion, there’s no litmus test. We’re not weighing your character in the balance to see if you’re found wanting. To be deserv- ing of inclusion has nothing to do with your personality, virtues, or abilities; nothing to do with your gender, race, ethnicity, education or any other demographic variable that defines you. There are, at this level, no disqualifications, except one—the threat of harm. > > The only reciprocation requirement in this unwritten social contract is the mutual exchange of respect and permission to belong. That exchange is unenforceable by law. There are, of course, laws against discrimination, but in a thousand ways we can still informally persecute each other. > What should it take to qualify for inclusion safety? Two things: Be human and be harmless. If you meet both criteria, you qualify. ## Learner Safety > The moral imperative to grant learner safety is to act first by encouraging the learner to learn. Be the first mover.