Psychological Safety at Work: Why Your Team Isn’t Speaking Up and What to Do About It

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If your organisation is struggling with slow decision-making, repeated mistakes, low engagement, or “meetings after the meeting,” you don’t have a performance problem.

You have a psychological safety problem.

In my work with individuals and teams, both in and beyond organisational settings, I see the same pattern again and again: capable, intelligent people holding back critical information - not because they don’t care, but because speaking up feels risky.

Psychological safety is not about comfort or harmony. It is about whether people believe they can tell the truth at work without damaging their credibility, career, or relationships.

And when that belief is missing, performance quietly declines.

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Why Psychological Safety Is a Business Issue Not a Culture Initiative

Psychological safety, a term coined by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, refers to a shared belief that it is safe to take interpersonal risks; asking questions, challenging assumptions, admitting mistakes.

From a business psychology perspective, this is not abstract. It directly affects:

• Decision quality

• Speed of learning

• Risk management

• Innovation

• Retention of high performers

When psychological safety is low, organisations don’t just lose ideas, they lose information. People filter what they say. Problems surface late. Leaders make decisions based on incomplete data. The cost of silence is always higher than leaders expect.

What’s Happening in the Brain When People Don’t Feel Safe

This isn’t about personality or resilience. It’s about neurobiology.

The human brain treats social threat - being judged, embarrassed, or excluded - the same way it treats physical danger. When employees anticipate negative consequences for speaking up, the brain shifts into threat mode.

In this state:

• Cognitive flexibility drops

• Creativity narrows

• Memory and learning decline

• People default to self-protection

This is why “encouraging people to speak up” doesn’t work if the environment remains unsafe. You cannot out-motivate a threat response. Psychological safety is the condition that allows the brain to operate at its best.

The Four Levels Where Psychological Safety Breaks Down

Psychological safety doesn’t fail all at once. It erodes in predictable stages.

1. Inclusion Safety

Do people feel they belong or are some voices quietly sidelined?

2. Learner Safety

Can people admit they don’t know something without being judged?

3. Contributor Safety

Are ideas genuinely welcomed or subtly dismissed?

4. Challenger Safety

Can employees question decisions, especially senior ones?

Most organisations believe they have psychological safety because people are polite. Politeness is not safety. Silence is often a warning sign.

The Performance Impact Leaders Often Miss

The strongest evidence for psychological safety comes from performance data:

• Google’s Project Aristotle found psychological safety to be the number one predictor of high-performing teams

• Healthcare studies show fewer errors when staff feel safe to speak up

• Organisations with higher psychological safety learn faster after failures and adapt more effectively to change.

From a consulting standpoint, this matters because psychological safety acts as a force multiplier: it determines how much value you actually get from your talent.

You can hire the best people in the market. If they don’t feel safe, you’ll only access a fraction of their capability.

The Subtle Ways Leaders Undermine Safety (Without Realising It)

In most organisations, psychological safety isn’t destroyed by overt hostility. It’s eroded through everyday signals, such as:

• Leaders reacting defensively to feedback

• Mistakes being remembered longer than successes

• Interruptions or talking over others in meetings

• Rewarding speed and certainty over reflection

• Saying “my door is always open” but appearing unavailable.

Employees are constantly scanning for cues: What happens when someone speaks up?

They adjust their behaviour accordingly. Culture is shaped less by what leaders say, and more by what they tolerate.

How to Implement Psychological Safety Practically, Not Theoretically

Psychological safety is built through consistent leadership behaviours, not workshops alone.

Here are interventions I typically recommend when consulting organisations:

1. Start With Leadership Self-Awareness

Leaders must understand how their reactions shape team behaviour. Even subtle nonverbal responses can shut down dialogue.

Key question: How do people experience me when they disagree with me?

2. Normalize Learning, Not Perfection

Publicly discuss lessons learned from failures, especially leadership failures. This reframes mistakes as data, not defects.

3. Structure Speaking Up

Don’t rely on confidence. Use meeting structures that ensure all voices are heard, such as:

• Round-robin input

• Anonymous idea collection

• Explicit invitations to dissent

4. Respond Well in High-Risk Moments

Psychological safety is built in moments of tension. How leaders respond when someone challenges a decision matters more than any value statement.

5. Address Breaches Immediately

One sarcastic comment or public dismissal can undo months of progress. Leaders must intervene consistently and clearly.

Measuring Psychological Safety: What Gets Managed Gets Improved

Psychological safety should be assessed just like any other performance variable.

Validated tools, such as Edmondson’s Team Psychological Safety Scale, provide actionable data on:

• Risk-taking

• Error reporting

• Interpersonal trust.

Tracking this over time allows organisations to link safety directly to engagement, retention, and performance metrics.

Psychological Safety as a Strategic Advantage

As organisations become more complex - hybrid work, cross-functional teams, rapid change - the ability to surface information quickly becomes critical.

Psychological safety determines whether:

• Problems are identified early or late

• Innovation happens in pockets or system-wide

• Employees bring their full thinking or just compliance.

From a business psychology lens, psychological safety is no longer optional. It is an enabling condition for execution.

Final Thought: The Real Question Leaders Must Ask

The most important question is not:

“Do people feel comfortable?”

It’s this:

“What information am I not hearing, and why?”

Psychological safety is not about lowering standards. It is about raising the quality of thinking, dialogue, and decision-making.

Organisations that invest in it don’t just become better places to work. They become better at work.