When someone stays silent or softens what they were going to say, that's not a failure of courage. It's a rational output of a system of power. "The calculus of voice." psychsafety.com/the-calculus...

Was der Untergang des schwedischen Kriegsschiffs „Vasa“ direkt bei der Jungfernfahrt 1628 mit schlechtem Projektmanagement zu tun hat, das auch heute noch in vielen Organisationen zu finden ist. Sehr lesenswerter Artikel. psychsafety.com/the-vasa-dis...

"Assumptions are the termites of relationships." — Henry Winkler Most team friction isn't a people problem. It's a contracting problem. New on psychsafety.com by @jadegarratt.bsky.social psychsafety.com/contracting-...

Interesting article about the Vasa, a ship commissioned by Sweden in the 1600 which capsized on its first trip out of port, within sight of the dignitaries assembled to see it off, due to conflicting building requirements. (Via MetaFilter.) psychsafety.com/the-vasa-dis...

a great, brief piece on the Vasa disaster: psychsafety.com/the-vasa-dis...

The Vasa L: https://psychsafety.com/the-vasa-disaster/ C: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47721289 posted on 2026.04.10 at 13:34:43 (c=0, p=3)

"how many people who were involved in building it knew that it would sink?" The Vasa - Psych Safety https://psychsafety.com/the-vasa-disaster/

The Vasa sank in 1628 because the people who knew it would sink didn't feel able to say so to the people who could have done something about it. We wrote up the full case study — Vasa Syndrome, authority gradients, and what it tells us about organisational learning. psychsafety.com/the-vasa-dis...

The psychological safety core principles. The short version: it's a matter of equity and rights, not performance optimisation. Power is at the heart of it. The work is on the response, not the speaker. And it's never finished. psychsafety.com/our-core-principles

psychsafety.com/learning-fro... “Underneath every simple, obvious story about ‘human error,’ there is a deeper, more complex story about the organization.” - Sidney Dekker

Over 80% of junior doctors changed how they write reflective notes after Bawa-Garba. That's not cowardice. That's a rational response to what they watched happen. psychsafety.com/learning-fro...

psychsafety.com/plan-continu... "Plan continuation bias is the cognitive,emotional & social tendency to stick with an established plan even when new information or changing conditions mean it no longer makes sense. it often leads individuals to press on long after they should stop." (full alt txt)

Ever wondered why some teams hide defects while others swarm to fix them? The Andon Cord isn't just a Toyota tool; it's a masterclass in psychological safety. When stopping the line is praised, quality becomes a shared duty, not a burden. psychsafety.com/psychologica... #ProductManagement #Agile

Noting the benefits of psychological safety is not the same as making those benefits the justification for it. We don't ask whether freedom of speech delivers ROI. Psychological safety belongs in the same category- as a fundamental condition of dignity at work. psychsafety.com/the-utility-...

The real work of psychological safety isn't adjusting people's mindsets or building courage. It's creating conditions where speaking up is genuinely low-risk. Once those conditions exist, most people don't need much encouragement. psychsafety.com/fake-it-till...

Prospect Theory shows that our voice calculus tends to shift towards the negative. psychsafety.com/prospect-the...

Neuroscience makes claims feel more credible — even when it adds nothing. The SANE effect: The Seductive Allure of Neuroscience Explanations The danger isn’t that we’ll believe nonsense. It’s that weak ideas get a free pass when they sound neurosciency enough. 🧠 psychsafety.com/the-sane-eff...

Such things are an extension of The PacMan Rule really. psychsafety.com/the-pac-man-...

Learning Teams focus on goldilocks events: not the most severe, but those with the greatest learning potential. That’s where everyday adaptations become visible. psychsafety.com/learning-tea...

“Busywork is usually not laziness; more often it’s status-seeking under uncertainty and scarcity.” ST.R.E.A.M: Status Rules Everything Around Me psychsafety.com/st-r-e-a-m-s...

“Just adopt a growth mindset” can sound positive… …but when it’s used to push people harder or ignore unsafe systems, it becomes coercive. A sharp, ethical take from Jade Garratt: 👉 psychsafety.com/growth-mindset

We’re not always measuring what matters. Often, we’re measuring what we can… and making it matter. The Streetlight Effect in organisations: looking where the light is, not where the truth lives. psychsafety.com/the-streetli...

Our Psych Safety Book List 2025 isn’t a “best of”. It’s six books that changed how we think about power, systems, people & complexity — many recommended by the community. Eclectic by design. 📚 psychsafety.com/psych-safety...

“You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.” — Kenny Rogers This week we dive into Plan Continuation Bias - the causes, the impacts and dynamics in different contexts - from mountaineering to product teams - and ways to mitigate it. psychsafety.com/plan-continu...

“From a psychological safety perspective, whistleblowing is a symptom of system failure, not success.” psychsafety.com/whistleblowi...

People who grew up with less financial security often carry a higher perceived cost of risk into their careers. Our latest research shows how SES influences psychological safety and opportunity-taking — especially early on. Read more 👇 psychsafety.com/childhood-se...

Psychological safety ≠ psychosocial safety. One is about interpersonal risk-taking, the other is about protection from harm. Confusing them creates dangerous blind spots. psychsafety.com/psychosocial...

“As information traverses an organisational hierarchy, it gets diluted and distorted.” 👉 Read the full piece on vertical and horizontal psychological safety: psychsafety.com/the-watermel...

“When systems don’t change, the call for individual resilience becomes a kind of gaslighting.” psychsafety.com/individual-r...

“If my grandmother had wheels, she’d be a bicycle.” Counterfactuals: tidy, satisfying, and entirely imaginary. We don’t learn from the world-that-didn’t-happen. #HumanFactors #HOP #ComplexSystems psychsafety.com/counterfactu...

“Space, trust and curiosity can do far more than proving cleverness ever will.” — Jade Garratt Beautiful piece on how coaching builds psychological safety through humility, listening, and letting go of control. #PsychSafety #Coaching #Leadership psychsafety.com/coaching-and...

but in thinking and researching this question, i came across this article which i think presents the problems around measuring social outcomes very well psychsafety.com/goodharts-la...

We're exploring socioeconomic background and age in relation to interpersonal risk appetite in the workplace. There are only 4 questions, and you can remain anonymous. Respond at the link in the comments, and you can provide your own qualitative insights too! psychsafety.com/the-psycholo...

Organisations are ecosystems. ✨ Emergence 🌾 Substrate 🌳 Succession 🪲 Indicator species 🌊 Ecotones Five ecological ideas that can transform how we think about change: psychsafety.com/five-ecologi...

Teachers work at the sharp end. Leaders & policymakers at the blunt end. The danger is the gap between them. ✏️ psychsafety.com/the-sharp-en...

Disclosure costs more to some than others. Marginalised colleagues often pay the highest price for “team-bonding” vulnerability rituals. psychsafety.com/forced-vulne...

“Our collective task ahead is to keep psychological safety porous and evolving, to resist its commodification, and to build organisations where everyone can be heard.” psychsafety.com/reflections-...

This week is the third instalment in our 4-part #psychologicalsafety series, "Reflections", and explores deviance and dissent, non-determinism and non-linearity, and resisting KPIs, metrics and targets. Read it here: psychsafety.com/reflections-...

🚀 Launch! The Psychological Safety Trainer Toolkit is here. 11 videos, slide deck, templates + resources — everything you need to run powerful psych safety sessions. 10% off this September with code LAUNCH10 🎉 👉 psychsafety.com/psychologica...

Talk time ≠ safety. Eye contact ≠ trust. Stammering ≠ fear. If we want psychological safety, we need to fix systems, not people. psychsafety.com/reflections-...

The next five years should be less about awareness and more about depth. Psychological safety must stay porous, inclusive, and evolving – or it risks becoming just another management fad. psychsafety.com/reflections-...

“Look at me while I’m talking to you.” Psychological safety isn’t built with “hacks.” Eye contact may help some people feel safe — for others, it feels like surveillance, dominance, or a demand to mask. One-size-fits-all advice risks harm. psychsafety.com/not-feeling-...

“That trade-off – cost and convenience over risk mitigation – speaks volumes about what the organisation truly valued – and it wasn’t safety.” psychsafety.com/the-amagasak...

That reminds me of (modern, secular) attempts to create concrete systems to enable speaking up in safety-critical highly-hierarchical systems, eg: #ParshaChat psychsafety.com/pace-graded-...

Children's books about psychological safety. The books in this collection beautifully illustrate what psychological safety can look and feel like for children, whether that’s embracing mistakes, finding the courage to speak up, or learning to navigate conflict. psychsafety.com/psychologica...

Carl Rogers argued creativity can’t be forced—it must be invited through psychological safety: unconditional worth, no judgement, and true empathy. #PsychSafety #Creativity psychsafety.com/psychologica...

⏳Final week to sign up to the Green Party. 🗳️ Vote for Bold Leadership on August 1st.

Not everyone stays silent for the same reason. Are they Fear‑Averse, Competence‑Anxious, or Cynical‑Conformists? Diagnose your team members' archetypes and tailor your psychological‑safety strategy. psychsafety.com/barriers-to-...

Claims of ‘too much psychological safety’ often ignore the cost: which voices are we suggesting should be quieter, and what might we be willing to miss as a result?