How We Think About Learning at Psych Safety

At Psych Safety, we care deeply about how learning happens. Not just what people take away from a session, but how it feels to be there – what kind of space it is, whether people feel able to speak up and how useful it actually is afterwards. Learning is relational and cultural, not just transactional.

Here are five principles we try to work from when we design learning experiences, whether it be our open-enrolment workshops or the bespoke sessions we run for businesses and organisations:

1. Learning requires psychological safety

This is the cornerstone of our approach. It would feel pretty hypocritical to run sessions on psychological safety without paying attention to how safe the space actually feels. But more than that, we believe psychological safety is the foundation of meaningful, collaborative learning. If people don’t feel safe to ask questions, share something vulnerable, or say “I don’t know,” then the learning stays surface-level. So we put a lot of care into creating environments where people feel respected, included, and able to take part – not just as professionals, but as people.

Incidentally, this is also why we don’t record our online sessions and why we use the Chatham House Rule – to create clear boundaries around sharing. In our experience, people feel far more comfortable speaking up and participating fully when they know their privacy is respected by the group and by us.

2. We design for how people actually learn

The learning process is about so much more than just delivering content. It’s about how people connect with ideas, make sense of them, remember them, and eventually, do something differently as a result. We draw on research from educational psychology and cognitive science, including the ASRI model, which helps us think about Attention, Sense-making, Retention and Internalisation. It means giving space for contextualisation, asking thought-provoking questions, and building in consolidation of learning in a way that feels natural.

It also means we meet people where they are. Whether someone’s hearing about psychological safety for the first time or they’ve got a PhD in it (we’ve genuinely had both in the same session!), we make sure there’s a way in, and plenty of space to connect with and build on what people already know or have experienced.

3. We make it relevant

We don’t believe in generic, off-the-shelf training. If learning isn’t connected to people’s real roles, challenges and contexts, it won’t land. So we tailor what we deliver – we listen, we ask questions and we adapt. It’s the context that brings the session to life.

We’re still big believers in learning across domains. Some of our favourite moments come from sharing practices that work in aviation with people working in education, or applying lessons from healthcare to tech. But the real magic happens when people start exploring how an idea might work for them – when they begin adapting the learning to fit their world and the challenges they’re facing.

4. Learning happens in all directions

We don’t see ourselves as experts broadcasting knowledge from the front of the room. We bring insights from our work on psychological safety and from building the conditions in which people can feel psychologically safe in different organisations – but just as importantly, we create spaces where people can learn from each other. Every session includes time to share stories, discuss ideas and explore different perspectives.

We’re always learning too. We leave every workshop with notes on things to improve, future directions to explore (and often write newsletters about!), as well as thought-provoking ideas that came up along the way.

5. Learning doesn’t stop at the end of the session

We want what we offer to be useful afterwards, not just in the moment, and we recognise that fostering greater psychological safety often means rethinking some of our behaviours and even our underlying beliefs, for instance about power, privilege and what it means to lead. That isn’t necessarily going to happen during the workshop itself, but the lightbulb moment that sparks a new way of thinking or acting might. 

That’s why we build in time for reflection during and at the end of the session. After any workshop, we share tools and follow-up resources that people can use straight away, as well as links to further learning.

If this resonates…

If you’re supporting learning and development in your organisation and this approach resonates, we’d love to hear from you. We also run open-enrolment sessions throughout the year – a chance to explore psychological safety in practice, meet others who care about culture and learning, and try out some of the ideas we’ve shared here. You can find upcoming dates here, or just drop us a line if you’d like to know more.

Further Reading

Typologies of Power

We Don’t Need Psychological Safety

Leadership and Management