Understanding Psychological Safety: Why It Matters and How to Create It

Investing in psychological safety has been shown to drive long-term organizational success. It leads to higher employee engagement, retention, and overall performance, with 98 percent of workers valuing psychological safety in the workplace [1]. By cultivating psychological safety within your team, you can create an environment where individuals feel empowered to contribute meaningfully, fueling sustained success and growth within your organization.

What is the meaning of psychological safety?

Psychological safety, sometimes called team psychological safety, is a term that describes the shared belief that it’s okay to openly express ideas, discuss concerns, ask questions, and take risks without worry of reprisal or negative consequences. This phenomenon allows you (or your team members) to make mistakes and learn without feeling like you must hide from negative consequences or sugarcoat bad news. 

This builds a foundation of trust and mutual respect within your team, which empowers each member to contribute their insights and collaborate across disciplines and perspectives effectively. When you create an environment that fosters this interaction, groups can expand their abilities to innovate, solve problems, and adapt to change.

Psychological safety examples: What does psychological safety look like?

A psychologically safe team should feel comfortable engaging with each other openly, sharing perspectives, and asking questions. For example, in a psychologically safe team environment, your teammate might openly share a bold new idea or acknowledge a mishap on their end, knowing teammates will receive their input with compassion and curiosity rather than criticism and judgment. 

Team members will also typically provide both positive and negative feedback, with specifics beyond “everything is going well.” This includes giving feedback to team members and colleagues more senior than yourself. In a psychologically safe environment, employees should feel comfortable voicing their opinions (respectfully and politely) without fear of being blamed or shut down, even when communicating with managers or leadership. 

Why is psychological safety important?

Psychological safety benefits individuals and the collective by enhancing collaboration, driving innovation, and improving productivity across organizations. Employees who share their perspectives without worrying about the potential for negative consequences are more engaged, motivated, and empowered to contribute their best. Some ways in which psychological safety transforms the workplace include:

Improved employee retention.

When you build a culture rooted in psychological safety, employees often stay longer. In fact, only 3 percent of employees report being at risk of leaving work environments with high psychological safety [2]. This highlights how fostering psychological safety can reduce turnover, which is associated with increased employee loyalty, decreased hiring costs, and a more sustainable, highly skilled workforce. 

Increased diversity in your workforce.

The effects of psychological safety within the workplace tend to be most pronounced in diverse and disadvantaged employee groups. Workplaces with high psychological safety see remarkable improvements in retention across several underrepresented groups [2]:

• Women and Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) employees are four times more likely to remain at their organization.

• People with disabilities are five times more likely to stay with their company.

• LGBTQ+ employees are six times more likely to continue working at the same company. 

Psychological safety helps create an inclusive work environment, which in turn helps attract and maintain a diverse workforce. This reduces disparities within the workplace and strengthens the organizational ability to leverage diverse perspectives and experiences.

Enhanced performance. 

Psychological safety enables teams to tap into the full potential of their members, particularly those from diverse backgrounds. This diversity leads to more creative problem-solving, better decision-making, and exploration of new opportunities outside the status quo. 

Stages of psychological safety

Generally, psychological safety within the workplace progresses in four stages—inclusion, learner, contributor, and challenger. Building psychological safety can be gradual, so don’t be discouraged if it takes time. 

1. Inclusion safety

This is the foundational element of psychological safety. To meet this, you must feel your teammates and leadership value and accept your contributions, regardless of your background or position.

2. Learner safety

If you have learner safety, you will feel comfortable exploring new areas, asking questions, and making mistakes. Leadership within the organization should encourage the learning process, including building an understanding that learning is not always linear and it is okay for employees to grow at their own pace.

3. Contributor safety

The next stage of psychological safety is the contributor stage. In this stage, you’ll feel comfortable speaking up in group settings and sharing your insights without worrying about rejection or dismissal.

4. Challenger safety

When challenger safety is met, you can share conflicting viewpoints with teammates or organizational leaders without fear or anxiety. In this environment, you can help to enact positive change, shaping team dynamics and organizational culture.

The 4 dimensions of psychological safety

While psychological safety isn’t a one-size-fits-all, you can generally quantify it by four common dimensions. These principles act as a framework for creating a positive company culture that helps workers feel valued. The four dimensions include:

• Willingness to help: You feel encouraged to ask for and provide help.

• Inclusion and diversity: The organization values diverse experiences and perspectives.

• Attitude to risk and failure: You and others view mistakes as a learning experience.

• Open conversation: Conversations are open and honest and invite participation.

While these dimensions help to guide what a psychologically safe workplace looks like, you and your team can create this type of environment in whichever way works for your specific dynamics and environment. Encourage open communication for how each team member would like to approach collaboration and connections within the workplace. 

Steps to create psychological safety 

As a leader, creating psychological safety starts by turning inward. Acknowledging and understanding your own emotions and behaviors in the workplace allows you to lead with authenticity and empathy. 

By demonstrating vulnerability and staying aware of the dynamics within the organization, you can set a tone of openness and trust. Showing compassion to your employees by understanding their experiences and addressing their needs helps to create an environment where your team feels genuinely cared for and valued. To do this effectively, consider the following tips:

• Normalize saying “I don’t know” and sharing when you make mistakes.

• Discuss failures and what you all learned as a team.

• Be genuine when asking someone to share their perspective.

• Thank people for sharing their opinions.

• Openly seek feedback.

• Avoid defensiveness when responding to feedback.

• Review your delivery of sensitive topics with a third party before communicating them.

• Show gratitude openly to your teammates.

• Create spaces where you can informally connect and develop relationships. 

Continue learning about psychological safety in the workplace on Coursera.

Psychological safety creates an environment where employees can ask questions, take risks, and provide honest perspectives without fear of negative consequences. Building a positive work culture can profoundly impact employee engagement and productivity, and leaders on Coursera can help you develop the skills to take these steps confidently. The Leading People and Teams Specialization, offered by the University of Michigan, is a great way to foster these skills at your own pace. You’ll learn to create and communicate your vision as a leader, as well as manage talent to improve employee performance, development and retention.