Having just read on psychological safety, I see the topic more and more. Building a Culture of Learning at Work from Adam Grant (based on his new book) talks about this directly.
The foundation of a learning culture is psychological safety — being able to take risks without fear of reprisal. Evidence shows that when teams have psychological safety, they’re more willing to acknowledge their own mistakes and figure out how to prevent them moving forward. They’re also more comfortable raising problems and exploring innovative solutions.
I particularly like the examples he provides of making this come to life. Essentially, he found that when leaders (at any level) were open about their own struggles on challenging problems, it had a positive impact on the willingness of others to be open about “I don’t know” and seeking out solutions with others.
Just like many other scenarios, where we see the effect and tell people to do that less (“Don’t multitask”), it doesn’t give people clear guidance on what to do. While the specific examples of doing something like “Mean Tweets” from Jimmy Kimmel Live! might not be in the cards for every organization, getting out there and being willing to acknowledge errors and mistakes can really open up the rest of the organization.