---
id: "quote-black-box-sense-making"
type: "quote"
source_timestamps: ["§ Where Trust Breaks Down"]
source_url: "https://hbr.org/2026/02/how-to-foster-psychological-safety-when-ai-erodes-trust-on-your-team"
source_title: "How to Foster Psychological Safety When AI Erodes Trust on Your Team"
tags: ["black-box", "sense-making", "transparency"]
related: ["concept-attribution-uncertainty", "claim-ai-errors-ripple-differently"]
speaker: "Jayshree Seth and Amy C. Edmondson"
speakers: ["Jayshree Seth", "Amy C. Edmondson"]
quote: "When AI confidently makes a recommendation, teams can’t engage in collaborative sense-making due to the “black box” nature of AI. This lack of transparency and explainability can make team members struggle to calibrate trust in AI and feel confidence in its output."
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-cl-79-psychological-safety-ai-trust"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/02/how-to-foster-psychological-safety-when-ai-erodes-trust-on-your-team"
sourceTitle: "How to Foster Psychological Safety When AI Erodes Trust on Your Team"
---
# The Black Box Prevents Sense-Making

> "When AI confidently makes a recommendation, teams can't engage in collaborative sense-making due to the 'black box' nature of AI. This lack of transparency and explainability can make team members struggle to calibrate trust in AI and feel confidence in its output."
>
> — [[entity-jayshree-seth|Jayshree Seth]] and [[entity-amy-c-edmondson|Amy C. Edmondson]] (§ Where Trust Breaks Down)

**Why it matters.** The plainest statement of the causal chain from opacity to broken trust: it is the evidence line for [[concept-attribution-uncertainty]] and [[claim-ai-errors-ripple-differently]], and it explains *why* AI errors cannot be metabolized through [[prereq-collective-sense-making]].