Psychological Safety Training Course

A psychological safety training course works or fails largely on sequence. Open with the definition and you lose the room, because everyone already believes people should be able to speak up. Open with the cost of silence and they stay.

A sequence that holds up:

• Start with a case. Something concrete where a problem was known and not raised, and what it cost.
• Then the four fears. Ignorant, incompetent, negative, disruptive. People recognise themselves immediately.
• Then the distinction. Psychological safety as team climate versus psychological health and safety as the WHS duty.
• Then the behaviours. What to say when someone raises something, in actual words.
• Finish with one commitment. A single thing each person will do differently this week.

Length matters less than whether anyone does anything afterwards. A focused fifteen minutes that changes one behaviour beats a half day that changes none.

Safe Work Australia sets out the psychosocial duty the course should reflect. This is general information rather than legal advice.

See Sentrient’s psychological safety training course and course for managers.