“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?

As Dekker says, ‘When theory and practice clash, it is not the practice that is wrong.’ So when published papers don’t align with real-world experience, we must question the paper — not the people.

How you respond matters. People will observe how we respond to others when someone admits a mistake, raises a concern, or takes some other interpersonal risk, and that influences how likely they are to take similar risks. Read more: psychsafety.com/how-you-resp...

Over 50% of teams name social contracts or team charters in their top-three psychological safety rituals—far more than the 27% we’d expect by chance. Norm-setting matters! psychsafety.com/practices-th...

A significant number of people who attend our "Measuring Psychological Safety" workshops decide, in conclusion, *not* to survey psychological safety. That's a pretty big win in our opinion :)

The first rule of bad management: "When something isn't working, do more of it." - Jerry Weinberg

Our survey highlights a feedback paradox: beneficial yet often demotivating or irrelevant. How can we better deliver feedback to foster true psychological safety? #PsychologicalSafety psychsafety.com/feedback-in-...

People under time pressure don’t think faster, they think less.

We asked 90+ people how job insecurity affected their ability to raise concerns. 🎯 81.5% felt less safe Only 4.3% felt “very safe” Job security and psychological safety aren’t the same thing—but they’re not unrelated. psychsafety.com/job-security...

The UK Government Digital Service posted this a few years back, and we still love it. They were making it explicit that it’s ok to ask for help, suggest ideas and admit mistakes. We delve into more psychological safety theory, opinion and tools here: psychsafety.com/psychologica...

“Most people have heard of psychological safety, but few feel like experts.” Last week, we surveyed 121 professionals to gauge how well the concept of psychological safety is understood in today’s workplace. Read the analysis here: psychsafety.com/research-how...

"Learning is relational and cultural, not just transactional." This week @jadegarratt.bsky.social describes how we believe true learning is relational, cultural, and anchored in psychological safety. psychsafety.com/learning-at-...

Last chance to contribute to this week’s #psychologicalsafety research pulse! This week we’re researching familiarity with psychological safety in different fields. Respond here: form.typeform.com/to/ApyToBcU

The Psychological Safety Action Pack and Playbooks to help you build and maintain a high performing team! Take a look:

Fundamentally, silence isn’t necessarily bad. It may be uncomfortable, it may feel unproductive, but it can be really powerful. Explore the full piece on silence and psychological safety: psychsafety.com/the-power-of...

In this week's #psychologicalsafety research pulse, we're exploring how familiar people are with the concept of psychological safety in different industries. By entering you might win a bag of stickers and a free Psychological Safety Action Pack! Link here: form.typeform.com/to/ApyToBcU

Rebuilding Psychological Safety When It’s Broken psychsafety.com/rebuilding-p...

3/5: Ever been to a networking event where everyone seemed to already be in groups? They should be following the Pac-Man Rule. psychsafety.com/the-pac-man-... #Networking #Socialising #Friendship #PacMan

We found that while organisational benefits (innovation, performance, quality, safety) matter, the most powerful motivators for fostering psychological safety are: - Because it’s the right thing - Team communication and collaboration - Wellbeing and mental health psychsafety.com/why-do-peopl...

But I’m right by your side, And that’s what we call Pride Grace Petrie gracepetrie.bandcamp.com/track/pride

Survey is still open for a few days yet

When Tom first began “doing” leadership, he struggled to establish a way to get high-cadence, high-quality, low-effort information from the members of his team. Then he found 15/5 reports:

"The “Andon Cord” is one of the most famous mechanisms for introducing a culture of quality, raising problems early, and psychological safety. We dive into it, in all of its glory, here: psychsafety.com/psychologica...

We support LGBTQ+ rights all year round. But we also celebrate pride!