Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is a shared belief within a team that it is safe to speak up. People can ask a question, admit a mistake, disagree with someone senior or raise bad news early without expecting humiliation or punishment for it. It is a property of the team, not of the individual, which is why the same person can feel safe in one team and silent in another.

It shows up in observable behaviour rather than in a survey score. In a team with it, problems surface while they are still small, people say they do not know, and the most junior person in the room will contradict the most senior one when the facts call for it. In a team without it, the first anyone hears of a problem is when it can no longer be hidden.

It is worth separating from a term it gets confused with. Psychological safety describes how people feel and behave in a team. Psychological health and safety is the organisation’s work health and safety duty to manage psychosocial hazards so people are not harmed. The first is a culture outcome, the second is a legal obligation, and an organisation can be doing reasonably on one and poorly on the other.

Since 2022 the model Work Health and Safety Regulations have required duty holders to manage psychosocial risk, and Safe Work Australia publishes a model Code of Practice on managing psychosocial hazards at work. Adoption and timing vary by state and territory, so check what applies where your people work. This is general information rather than legal advice.

Building it is slower than measuring it. It comes from what leaders do repeatedly in small moments, particularly how they react the first time somebody raises something inconvenient. A single defensive response in front of a team undoes a great deal of stated intent, and the reverse is also true.

The articles tagged here cover both sides. To build the behaviours, see Sentrient’s psychological safety training course and psychological safety course for managers, or the full workplace compliance courses range.