Insight · In depth
Psychological safety at work
Psychological safety isn’t a soft extra. It’s the single factor that best predicts whether a team performs.
In a hybrid workplace, safety doesn’t build itself; it has to be led. Here’s why, and which practical steps work at a distance.
What is psychological safety?
The confidence to say things out loud, including the uncomfortable ones
Psychological safety is a shared belief that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks in the team: speaking your mind, asking a “stupid” question, admitting a mistake or disagreeing with the boss, without fearing that you’ll be laughed at or punished. The concept comes from Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, and Google’s Project Aristotle identified it as the most important trait its best-performing teams had in common.
Safety isn’t the same as agreeing, or always being nice to each other. Quite the opposite: psychologically safe teams have more disagreement, because people dare to be honest. That’s where mistakes get caught early, ideas get better, and nobody sits on the concern that could have changed everything. In a hybrid workplace, the concept has gained an extra dimension: Edmondson and INSEAD professor Mark Mortensen point out that safety now also has to reach into the conversation about where and when we work best, with all that means for family and for the line between work and personal life. See how we work with it in practice on our Dialogue & psychological safety page. Many organisations make it the theme for Denmark’s Mental Health Day in week 41 (early October).
In brief
ConceptAmy Edmondson, Harvard
EvidenceGoogle’s Project Aristotle
OppositeFear & silence
Applies toTeams, leadership teams, the whole organisation
In hybrid workHas to be built deliberately, not waited for
New on the agendaWhere, when and how we work
Why it’s hard in hybrid work
Safety is built in the small moments that disappear at a distance
When the team is spread out, many of the signals that safety used to be built from are lost.
01
The informal moments are gone
The chat by the coffee machine, where trust used to be built. At a distance, those moments have to be designed and prioritised; they won’t just happen.
02
Silence looks the same
Is it quiet because everything’s fine, or because nobody dares to say anything? On video, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference.
03
Signs of strain are spotted later
The early signs a leader used to catch in the corridor or the meeting room are harder to pick up online, unless you actively listen for the small signals.
04
Proximity bias
The people close to the leader are often unconsciously put first, heard most and given information before others. Resentment builds and smoulders in the background.
How to build it
Four practical steps that build safety, online too
Psychological safety can be actively cultivated, in hybrid work too. It’s less about personality and more about habits you can deliberately put in place.
01
Go first with doubts and mistakes
When the leader admits their own mistakes, shows doubt and shares their own dilemmas about hybrid work, it becomes safe for everyone to do the same. Mistakes are fine, as long as we learn from them together.
02
Ask, then stay quiet
Ask real questions, and let the silence do the work; on video, it needs to last longer than in the meeting room. Go round the group, so the people on screen get to speak before the quickest voices in the room.
03
Respond well to bad news
Thank whoever brings a mistake or a problem for being open. Don’t shoot the messenger. One bad reaction, and you won’t hear about the next ten.
04
Make the unspoken safe to say
Anonymous tools, regular check-ins and a clear rhythm for feedback give the people who don’t raise their hand on screen a way into the conversation.
Formats
Choose what fits your occasion
The same core content, packaged for the setting you need.
Talk
A talk that makes the research usable: what psychological safety is, what it isn’t, and why it’s harder to build when the team is spread out.
Workshop
You work on your own team. What doesn’t get said out loud here, and which small changes to meetings and follow-up would make it easier to say?
Virtual format
The same content online. We use anonymous input along the way, so what usually goes unsaid gets said online too.
Next steps
Want help strengthening psychological safety in your organisation?
Tell us briefly about your team or organisation and where things are getting stuck, and we’ll get back to you with a suggestion for a talk, a workshop or a programme.
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Reply within 1–2 working days
Frequently asked questions about psychological safety
Psychological safety is a shared belief that it’s safe to take interpersonal risks in the team: speaking your mind, asking questions, admitting mistakes and disagreeing without fearing humiliation or punishment. The concept was formulated by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson.
Through deliberate habits more than personality: leaders go first in admitting their own mistakes, ask real questions and listen, respond well to bad news, and create rhythms and tools that make it safe to say what’s been left unsaid. It’s built over time, in small, repeated moments. In hybrid teams it takes extra attention: regular check-ins, meetings run so everyone gets to speak, and a leader who shares what’s hard about working at a distance.
No, almost the opposite. Psychologically safe teams have more open disagreement, because people say it out loud. Safety isn’t about avoiding conflict or always being nice, but about being able to have difficult conversations without fear.
Edmondson shows that psychological safety is a precondition for learning and performance: teams with high psychological safety report more mistakes, not because they make more, but because people feel able to talk about them and so learn from them. Safety combined with high expectations is what marks out the best teams.