To what extent does psychological safety exist in your organisation?

Psychological safety is essential for fostering a culture of openness and trust within an organisation. When employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to engage in behaviours that contribute to organisational learning and improvement. This includes speaking up about potential issues, suggesting innovative ideas, and collaborating effectively with colleagues. In contrast, a lack of psychological safety can lead to a culture of silence, where employees are reluctant to raise concerns or share ideas, ultimately hindering the team and organisation's ability to learn and adapt. Psychological safety is a crucial element in any workplace, fostering an environment where employees feel safe to voice their opinions, ask questions, share ideas, raise concerns or admit to their mistakes without fear of retribution, punishment or humiliation.

Throughout my career I have experienced a range of different cultures where psychological safety existed to a lesser or greater extent but, to be honest, particularly early in my career I probably haven’t always recognised what it was or the impact it was having both on me and on the organisation within which I was working. With age, increasing wisdom and experience (some positive and some negative), the concept of psychological safety is now something I truly believe in, and it is core to my values as a leader.

I am prompted to reflect on psychological safety further in the context of the recent report in HSJ on NHS England's (NHSE) management and HR practices https://www.hsj.co.uk/workforce/nhse-admits-really-poor-management-and-hr/7039691.article I will leave you to read the full article for yourself, but the key points for me are that in 2023 only 53 per cent of NHSE staff felt safe to speak up about concerns. Here, one of the most significant issues raised in 2024-2025 is the prevalence of bullying and harassment by line managers, senior leaders, and within teams. The report also points to concerns about cultural leadership including a lack of empowerment and collaboration within the organisation. I won’t comment on this further, but I will say that NHSE are committed to improving their culture and working practices, and the first step in making improvements is to be open and honest about what needs to change. Thinking back to the first paragraph in this blog, what connections can you make between this scenario and the meaning attached to psychological safety?

In my role as an academic, I teach the theory of psychological safety and facilitate reflective discussions on the extent to which this level of safety exists in teams and the workplace, and what we can do on an individual and organisational level to promote a culture where psychological safety does in fact exist. The key components of psychological safety also appear regularly in my coaching practice, so it is a concept that has great meaning. These discussions and reflections bring about enlightenment and importantly, the will for action.

So how can you judge the extent to which psychological safety exists within your team and within your organisation? There are three key texts for me (listed at the end of this blog) that might help with that. However, my number one piece of advice is, don’t wait until something goes wrong to ask the question “to what extent does psychological safety exist in my organisation?” Understanding it now, good or bad, will help you, your team and your organisation grow. Have the conversation and if you and your teams cannot see and feel psychological safety then be honest and open about what you are collectively going to do as a team, what you are individually going to commit to, and act. If you all can see and feel it, then excellent, do not lose sight of that. Identify how, why and where it appears in your daily working lives and continue to build on it. It will be time well spent because you and your organisation will reap the benefits.

Clark, T.R. (2020) The 4 stages of psychological safety. Defining the path to inclusion and innovation. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers inc.

Edmondson, A.C. (2019) The fearless organisation. Creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation and growth. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Radecki, D & Hull, L. (2018) Psychological Safety. The key to happy, high-performing people and teams. Academy of Brain-based Leadership.