What Is Psychological Safety?

Psychological safety is a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. It's the confidence that you won't be punished, humiliated, or rejected for speaking up with questions, concerns, ideas, or mistakes.

The concept was developed by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson through her research on medical teams. She discovered that the best-performing hospital units actually reported MORE errors than poorly-performing ones. Not because they made more mistakes, but because they felt safe enough to discuss them openly.

This isn't about being comfortable or avoiding difficult conversations. It's the opposite. Psychological safety creates the conditions where people can have uncomfortable conversations productively.

Psychological Safety Definition

The formal definition: psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.

This definition has three important elements:

1. Shared belief — it's a team-level phenomenon, not an individual trait
2. Interpersonal risk — it's about the social consequences of speaking up
3. Team safety — it exists within a specific team context, not organisation-wide

Psychological safety exists on a spectrum. Teams can have high, moderate, or low psychological safety, and this can change over time based on leadership behaviour, team dynamics, and organisational context.

The Neuroscience Behind Psychological Safety

Understanding why psychological safety matters requires understanding how our brains respond to social threat.

The amygdala and threat response

When we perceive social threat, whether from a dismissive comment, a public critique, or fear of looking incompetent, our amygdala activates the fight-flight-freeze response. This happens in milliseconds, before conscious thought.

The physiological response includes:

• Cortisol and adrenaline flood the system
• Blood flow redirects away from the prefrontal cortex
• Higher cognitive functions (creativity, problem-solving, collaboration) become impaired
• Defensive behaviours emerge: withdrawal, aggression, or rationalisation

The impact on performance

When people feel psychologically unsafe, they operate in a diminished cognitive state. They focus on self-protection rather than contribution. They hold back ideas, avoid risks, and cover up mistakes rather than learning from them.

The opposite is also true. When people feel safe, their prefrontal cortex remains active. They can think clearly, take creative risks, admit uncertainty, and engage in genuine collaboration.

What Psychological Safety Is NOT

Psychological safety is often misunderstood. Clarifying what it isn't helps avoid common mistakes in building it.

It's not about being nice

Psychological safety doesn't mean avoiding conflict or difficult conversations. It means having the safety to engage in productive conflict. Teams with high psychological safety often have more disagreements, not fewer, but these disagreements are about ideas rather than personal attacks.

It's not about lowering standards

Creating psychological safety doesn't mean tolerating poor performance or avoiding accountability. High-performing teams combine psychological safety with high standards. The safety enables honest feedback about performance, which drives improvement.

It's not about agreeing with everyone

Psychological safety creates space for disagreement. When people feel safe, they're more likely to voice dissenting opinions, challenge assumptions, and push back on ideas they think are wrong. This leads to better decisions.

It's not a fixed personality trait

Some people naturally feel more confident speaking up than others. But psychological safety is primarily a team-level phenomenon created by leader behaviour and team norms, not individual personality. Even confident individuals will silence themselves in psychologically unsafe environments.

Learn about the research behind psychological safety from Amy Edmondson →

Why Psychological Safety Matters

Psychological safety isn't just a nice-to-have. It's a foundational requirement for high performance, innovation, and learning.

For team performance

Google's Project Aristotle found psychological safety was "by far the most important" factor in team effectiveness. Teams with high psychological safety were more likely to harness the diverse skills and perspectives of their members.

For learning and improvement

Teams can't improve if they can't discuss what's going wrong. Psychological safety enables the honest conversations about mistakes, failures, and problems that drive continuous improvement.

For innovation

Innovation requires risk-taking. People need to feel safe proposing ideas that might fail, challenging the status quo, and experimenting with new approaches. Without psychological safety, teams default to safe, incremental thinking.

For employee wellbeing

Working in psychologically unsafe environments is stressful. The constant vigilance required to avoid making mistakes or saying the wrong thing takes a toll on mental health. Psychological safety reduces this cognitive load and enables people to bring their full selves to work.

Building Psychological Safety in Your Team

Understanding what psychological safety is marks the first step. The next challenge is building it within your specific team context.

Key factors that influence psychological safety:

• Leader behaviour — how leaders respond to mistakes, questions, and dissent
• Team norms — the unwritten rules about what's acceptable
• Organisational context — the broader culture and systems
• Individual relationships — the trust between specific team members

See practical examples of psychological safety in action →

Learn how to build psychological safety step by step →

Explore psychological safety training options →