Safety and the Myth of Self-Reliance There are many myths that we Americans embrace, and the myth of triumphant self-reliance isin the top five. Let’s list our heroes: lone tycoons, solo cops, misunderstood dreamers, lone and desperateparents; each is resourceful,
Vertical and horizontal psychological safety Psychological safety means feeling safe (note: not necessarily comfortable) to take interpersonal risks. To foster it, we need to consider the dynamics of both the transmission and reception of information – whether that’s an idea,
Individual Resilience, or “Grit” You won’t find many articles on psychsafety.com about individual resilience. Organisational resilience, certainly, but rarely the individual kind. We tend not to find it an especially useful, or often fair, way to frame things. This sometimes
Counterfactuals If, like me, you grew up during the Friends era, you might remember the scene where Ross is upset because he has to tell Rachel that Emily insists they can’t be friends. Ross: “I don’t want Rachel to hate
Coaching and Psychological Safety: listening, trust and letting go of control By Jade Garratt When I first trained as a coach, I realised there were two things I wasn’t very good at: I meant well, but I was uncomfortable with
Emergence, substrate, succession, indicator species & ecotones. I started my career in ecology, as an experimentalist working in a research station’s wonderfully named “Weed Science” department – a title that sounds more like a kooky 80s film than a scientific
Are you at the Sharp End or the Blunt End? Most people who’ve been to school (and many who haven’t!) have strong opinions about education. Understandably so – education speaks to how we raise our children, what we value as
Forced Vulnerability One of the most persistent patterns in organisational change and dynamics is the search for a shortcut: the belief that if we can just find the right lever to pull, the right activity or artefact, we can bypass
Just in time for Halloween, we’ve created a special new sticker: “Zombies Are Scary, Speaking Up Shouldn’t Be” This is a special run just for Halloween, so grab yours now. They glow in the dark too!
In part one we explored the benefits and risks in naming psychological safety. In part two, we explored power and diversity. In part three we dived into dissent, non-determinism, and the seductive danger of metrics. This week, in our fourth and final part of
Part 3: The Safety to Dissent In part one we discussed the power and danger in naming psychological safety. In part two, we explored power and diversity. This week we’re continuing our series of reflections with some of the things we’ve
Part 2: Different people, different safety Continuing our reflections on the last five years. In part one, we explored the name psychological safety itself, and here in part two, we get into diversity, myths, the proliferation of bad advice, and
Part 1: The Power and Peril of Naming Over the past five years of our work in psychological safety, it has transformed from a little-known term, understood and explicitly practised by only a small group of researchers and practitioners, to
Not Feeling Seen: Eye Contact and Psychological Safety There really is some bad advice and research around in respect to psychological safety, in particular how it relates to aspects of neurodiversity and culture. In this piece, we’re going to dive
Psychological Safety Is Necessary But Not Sufficient. We sometimes hear “But psychological safety isn’t enough!”, and well… Obviously. It’s rather like saying that having a fully functioning car isn’t enough to make a road trip – and of course it
Every year we hold Psych Safety Days and other events for our wonderful community to come together, share insights, learn new practices and examine emergent research and evidence. These are grass-roots, practitioner-led events that are inclusive and accessible for all.
The Amagasaki Derailment In our workshops and training, we often use real-world stories as a way to explore the dynamics of both failure and success. Stories are a powerful tool to help us reflect on our own experiences, and sometimes
There isn’t a “one-size-fits-all”, cookie-cutter, road map approach to psychological safety. There are some foundational practices and principles, but the experience of psychological safety, and how it manifests, is different for everyone. Our background, culture, neurodiversities, abilities, needs and preferences
Psychological Safety Books for Children In 2020, we shared a collection of the best books about psychological safety. As new books were published (and there have been a lot of them about psychological safety!), we’ve added to and refined the
Welcome to The State of Psychological Safety Survey 2025 – the largest global survey on psychological safety ever! Psychological safety is the core ingredient behind high-performing, innovative, and happy teams. It shapes whether we feel safe speaking up, sharing ideas,
Barriers to Psychological Safety Executive Summary This research explores the experiential barriers to speaking up at work: not just structural or cultural factors, but the lived fears and beliefs that inhibit voice and learning. Drawing on responses from 138 participants,
How you respond matters “Everything you do is important to your organization. People are watching you. The people in your organization determine how to move forward after both successful work and how to recover after failure by watching how you
Executive Summary This study examined which practices most effectively foster psychological safety in teams and organisations. While behaviours such as listening and empathy underpin interpersonal safety, practices (structured, named activities like retrospectives or social contracts) create the scaffolds and shared
Executive Summary This study explored how feedback in the workplace affects both performance and psychological safety. While feedback is intended to drive growth and improvement, its delivery often has mixed results. Based on responses from 61 participants, the findings show
Psych Safety Day 2025 was wonderful! Malaga and Seville were gorgeous, very hot, and a fabulous way to wrap up 2025 and begin looking forward to what’s happening in Psych Safety for 2026. And if you’d like to have your
