The Foundations of Psychological Safety in Diverse Groups

Duration: 4 hours – 1 Day
Audience: up to 20 attendees

Modern organisations depend on diverse teams: across cultures, neurotypes, disciplines, and lived experience. Yet many initiatives to “increase inclusion” unintentionally reinforce dominant norms about communication, confidence, pace, and professionalism. The result? Some voices are amplified, others are silenced, and psychological safety becomes unevenly distributed.

What You’ll Learn in "Foundations of Psychological Safety in Diverse Groups"

Cultural Dimensions & Communication Norms

Explore key cultural patterns (drawing on Hofstede and related frameworks) that influence:
- hierarchy and authority
- directness vs indirectness
- feedback, disagreement, and escalation
Learn how to avoid stereotyping while still taking cultural difference seriously.
Examine real-world cases where misaligned norms led to silence, conflict, or poor decisions.

Neurodiversity, Voice, and Hidden Barriers

Understand how neurodivergence affects:
- voice and verbalisation, eye contact, tone, and body language
- processing speed and turn-taking
- tolerance for ambiguity and sensory load
- interpretation of social cues
Challenge common organisational assumptions about “confidence,” “engagement,” and “professional behaviour.”
Learn how to design interactions that support multiple communication styles.

Building Shared Norms Without Erasing Difference

Move beyond vague expectations like “be open” or “speak up.”
Learn how to establish:
- explicit turn-taking and challenge norms
- multiple channels for contribution (spoken, written, asynchronous)
- shared language for uncertainty, risk, and disagreement
Create a practical “Team Charter for Voice” tailored to diverse groups.

Suitable for practitioners, operators, managers and leaders

This workshop is designed for anyone who wants to create conditions where difference becomes a source of learning rather than silence, including:

Senior leaders and managers of multicultural or neurodiverse teams
HR, DEI, and organisational development professionals
Facilitators, coaches, and consultants

Whether you are leading a global team, redesigning internal processes, or supporting inclusion at scale, this session provides tools that are practical, adaptable, and grounded in real work.

Key Outcomes

By the end of this session, attendees will have:
A Systems View of Psychological Safety
Understand why safety cannot be reduced to individual behaviour, and how context, structure, and power shape voice.
Practical Design Tools
Take away concrete methods for inclusive meeting design, feedback, escalation, and decision-making.
Stronger Learning & Challenge
Build environments where disagreement, uncertainty, and difference are surfaced early—before they become failures.
More Equitable Participation
Learn how to notice whose voices are missing, and redesign work so that more people can contribute meaningfully.
Actionable Commitments
Leave with individual and organisational actions to improve safety, inclusion, and performance in real settings.

What’s Included for All Attendees

Credly Badge & Certificate of Completion:
Validate your HOP knowledge with a digital badge and certificate to share across professional networks.
Workshop Materials & Resources:
Downloadable slide decks, job aids, templates for learning reviews, error classification charts, and more.
Psychological Safety Action Pack License:
Gain access to our proven tools for fostering psychological safety—valuable for any continuous-improvement effort.
Private Alumni Group Access:
Join a global community of practitioners, share successes, ask questions, and continue learning long after the workshop ends.
Exclusive Swag:
Receive branded notebooks and pens to keep your notes handy as you integrate HOP into your organisation.

Ready to learn more?

Contact us to discuss dates, pricing, and customisation options. If you’re ready to move beyond intention and design the real conditions for voice, learning, and performance in diverse teams, get in touch to discuss dates, delivery format, and customisation.

Great content and enthusiastic presenter. Very thought provoking conversations. Tom was really knowledgeable and I really enjoyed his company.

Great use of collaboration tools and real world references to bring the session to life.

Superb session! Loved the interactive sharing of ideas and thoughts.

Loved the use of examples to bring to life the importance of psychological safety, and range of practical techniques to apply in my role

An incredibly interesting topic on something we all know quite a bit about but hadn't thought about as psychological safety. Brought everything together really well.

Psychological safety is critical to the way we work. I'm fairly familiar with the subject but found the content to be a really great refresher. Highly recommend as a beginner / intermediate stage course.