Yeah, it bothers the hell out of me when management forgets that we're actually tied to providing real value. The whole point of all this is that you get more

Yeah, it bothers the hell out of me when management forgets that we're actually tied to providing real value. The whole point of all this is that you get more value from the team when you do these things -- making people feel "safe" is a productivity hack, not the end goal. If people feel warm and fuzzy, but then don't move the project over the finish line, it's re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. The trick is to find people like you, get you engaged and feeling like you can actually fix the shit that's stopping you from being productive, while also getting you to give space for people to fuck up now and then, because people fucking up and feeling okay with that sometimes leads to really great insight when instead of fucking up they do something great. Basically, "safety" is letting people feel not-terrible for taking a risk and having it blow up in their face. That should be allowed on a team, and Google's research seems to show that teams who allow people to fuck up without making them feel bad about it tend to make better shit than teams who punish people for fucking up. ...to a point. If all you do is fuck up, that also violates the safety, on the manager's side because then they're not feeling safe letting people take risks.