Psychological Safety is not the goal Now, this might seem an odd thing to say for someone who makes a living by helping people understand and foster psychological safety, but it’s true. Psychological safety isn’t the goal; the goal is whatever your […]
Psychological Safety
Psychological Safety: What it isn’t. Psychological safety has become a hot topic recently, for good reason and hopefully this will result in better, safer, and more inclusive workplaces for everyone. However, the rise in its popularity has led to a […]
Burnout and psychological safety There are many causes of burnout, both systemic and individual, but we know that low psychological safety means we’re unlikely to be able to ask for help or raise concerns, which increases the likelihood of employee […]
Employment Rights and Psychological Safety Thanks so much to newsletter reader Andrea Notch for pointing me at Mona Chalabi’s illustrations of statistical ideas and topics – while I was having a look at Mona’s work, this one on unionisation stood […]
Data Visualisation In the psychsafety.com measurement workshop we cover a lot: research ethics, quantitative/qualitative approaches, longitudinal vs cross-sectional studies, formulating research questions, survey design, and communicating our findings. As part of that, we look at data visualisation, including this classic example: The Broad Street […]
Psychological Safety vs Psychosocial Safety: Why the Distinction Matters In Australia, psychosocial safety is not just good practice: it is a legal requirement. Since April 2022, changes to the Work Health and Safety (WHS) Regulations have required employers to identify […]
Ok, maybe this something *not* to try. This is the infamous CIA Simple Sabotage Field Manual from 1944, declassified (I believe) in 2008. It includes such gems as: How many of these have you observed in your workplace?
Local Rationality “People do reasonable things given their goals, knowledge, understanding of the situation and focus of attention at a particular moment.” We do things that make sense to us at the time. And a fundamental premise of psychological safety […]
A man goes out on the beach and sees that it is covered with starfish that have washed up in the tide. A little boy is walking along, picking them up and throwing them back into the water. “What are […]
Welcome to The State of Psychological Safety Survey 2023 – the annual survey of The Psychological Safety Newsletter. This is your chance to join thousands of voices, share your experiences, and inform the content of the next year of articles, resources, […]
Understanding and Implementing the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) This week we’re having a look at the new NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF). Whilst this is clearly relevant to our UK healthcare readers, I believe that the […]
Causes of Disaster at Chernobyl: The Absence of Psychological Safety (See below for the complete article) In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in the Ukrainian SSR (the territory of modern Ukraine) suffered a catastrophic failure that directly killed […]
Everest, and psychological safety in the mountains Thanks so much to a client of mine, the excellent Paul Verrico at Eversheds Sutherland, I was lucky enough to attend the 70th anniversary of the first Everest ascent, at the Royal Geographical Society […]
If we think about how we can apply sociotechnical theory in practice, we realise that organisational change or technological change will fail if we focus on one component (social or technical) in isolation and to the exclusion of others. We must consider how people are affected by technologies, and likewise, how technologies affect the way people behave.
High Performing Teams & Psychological Safety at Work: Psychological safety is the foundation for team performance, whether we’re oriented towards consistent quality, innovation, adaptation, safety or a combination of all outcomes. When people feel psychologically safe, they feel more able […]
What is “Safe to Fail”? Recently, I failed a motorbike test. This might sound like a mistake, but I fully expected to fail. In the UK, you must pass multiple tests before you’re allowed out on the roads on a […]
Psychological Safety Behaviours: The Big List (Updated Oct 2025) Psychological safety is a belief that the group is safe for interpersonal risk taking (Edmondson, 1999). There are many ways we can help to foster these environments, but it’s important to […]
Psychological Safety and Belonging In recent years, the crucial role of psychological safety and a sense of belonging in the workplace has come to the forefront of organisational research and discourse. These elements are not merely about comfort and inclusion; […]
Psychological Safety: Speaking Up at Work Imagine an objectively psychologically safe workplace environment. People are praised, rewarded, and incentivised to speak up with ideas, questions, concerns and mistakes. The whole culture is geared towards an environment that isn’t just safe to […]
Interpersonal vs. Intrapersonal Dynamics in Psychological Safety: Balancing Self and Others in Organisational Contexts In the organisational behaviour and dynamics, understanding the interplay between interpersonal and intrapersonal dynamics is crucial for fostering a culture of psychological safety. While these terms […]
Bullying at work If you’re in the UK, or even if not, you may have heard the news on Friday that Dominic Raab resigned from his post as Deputy Prime Minister as a result of multiple accusations and a resultant report that found him […]
The recent resignation of Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister of Great Britain, has put the issue of psychological safety in the workplace under the spotlight. Mr. Raab resigned following an investigation by Adam Tolley, which revealed his bullying behaviour […]
Checklists I read Atul Gawande’s “Better” some time around 2008 and absolutely loved it, so when he published “The Checklist Manifesto” in 2009, I grabbed a copy immediately. The Checklist Manifesto describes the power of checklists in reducing human error and increasing effectiveness across various industries, […]
Psychological Safety in the Workplace I once had a boss who, with great intentions, built a system for everyone in the organisation to provide each other with anonymous feedback, digitally and instantly. It was disastrous. It damaged psychological safety, and fostered resentment, distrust and […]
Read more about Goodhart’s Law, Campbell’s Law and The Cobra Effect here.
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