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: 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 Burnout has many causes, most of them systemic and structural (such as organisational structures and job design), as well as broader societal pressures. Excessive workload, chronic time pressure, relational conflict, lack of control, and sustained cognitive
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
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
Psychological safety and Buddhist Philosophy We’re in Barcelona this week for workshops and meetings, and we decided to visit La Sagrada Familia again. It’s an incredible building, and although construction began in 1882, it’s still unfinished. The architect, Gaudí, dedicated
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.
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;
https://youtu.be/QhwHGfws1-c Or Leadership vs Management? Leadership and management are not the same thing. But they’re not mutually exclusive either. In order to be a truly effective leader, we must also possess strong competency and capability in our respective domains. We
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.
