TL;DR: PDSA only works when people feel safe to surface problems, test ideas, and admit when something didn't work.
PDSA is supposed to be the engine of learning in Lean organizations. It's how teams test ideas, discover what actually works, and improve based on evidence rather than opinion.
But in many organizations, PDSA quietly fails. Not because people don't understand the steps — but because they don't feel safe admitting uncertainty, testing ideas that might fail, or saying “this didn't work.” Without psychological safety, PDSA turns into performative success instead of real learning.
What some might call “Fake PDSA” might be described as “Plan-Do-Rationalize-Justify” where people feel pressured to “prove” that every attempt at improvement is a success. PDSA is an experimental approach and, as my friend Rich Sheridan (CEO of Menlo Innovations) said in his upcoming episode of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast, if you always get the outcome you expect from your experiments… they aren't really experiments!
Being a scientific problem solver, using the PDSA approach (and the version of it called “A3 problem-solving”) requires a high degree of “psychological safety.”
That's part of what I talked about in this recent webinar:
Psychological Safety as a Foundation for Continuous Improvement
Without this feeling of psychological safety, the PDSA process breaks down (or we end up just going through the motions instead of realizing the full potential of this approach).
Plan
In the Plan stage of PDSA, we identify the problem or opportunity for improvement and we start to understand the situation. Doing so honestly and candidly requires a feeling of psychological safety.
Do we feel safe to point out a problem? Do we feel safe discussing it with others?
If we cannot point out a problem or admit a mistake, we won't have any chance of problem-solving or improving.
Do
In the “Do” stage, we start by testing our idea in practice. I've long thought this phase should be “T” for “Test.” Testing an idea requires psychological safety.
Do we feel safe to try something? Do we feel safe to try something that might not work out, even if we have a reasonable hypothesis or assumption that it will work?
Study and Adjust
These are the key phases of a PDSA approach. Back to Rich Sheridan's thought, if we feel pressured to always be right, there are a few dysfunctions that we'd see:
- People fudging the numbers (or ignoring the data) so they can declare it to be a success
- Being super cautious and only trying things that are “guaranteed to work” (which means we'll be less innovative if we don't feel safe to take reasonable risks)
Do we feel safe to admit something didn't work out as expected? Do we feel safe to go back and iterate — to go back and try again?
Leadership Behavior Determines Whether PDSA Works
Leaders create conditions in which people can decide they feel psychologically safe. They do so through two key actions:
- Modeling vulnerable acts (such as pointing out problems or saying “I could be wrong, so let's test that”)
- Rewarding vulnerable acts when employees follow their lead and do the same
You can read more about psychological safety here and I'd love to talk with you about how I can help assess, educate, and coach your organization in ways that help boost the general level of psychological safety that's felt by your people. You can use this form to contact me today.
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If you’re working to build a culture where people feel safe to speak up, solve problems, and improve every day, I’d be glad to help. Let’s talk about how to strengthen Psychological Safety and Continuous Improvement in your organization.
