Psychological safety – the invisible booster for successful teams
These patterns are normal in many teams, and they slow things down. Every single day. Apart from operational consequences, they have fundamental effects: they drain energy, prevent development and inhibit really good collaboration.
How can you break these patterns?
In 2012, Google looked at what makes teams truly effective, not in a lab, but in the real world of everyday work. The result was five specific factors that can be applied to any team.
- Psychological safety
- Reliability
- Structure and clarity
- Meaningfulness
- Effectiveness
The definition of effectiveness was based on four factors:
- Performance (Does the team deliver high-quality results?)
- Satisfaction (How happy are people working in this team?)
- Well-being (How are people feeling emotionally and mentally in the team?)
- Sustainability (How stable is the collaboration?)
In short, it wasn’t just output and hard facts that mattered, but also interpersonal factors, which were just as important as goals and results. What’s particularly interesting is that the study showed that without psychological safety, the other factors are ineffective.
‘Psychological safety was far and away the most important of the five dynamics we found.’ – Google re:Work, Project Aristotle [1]
What does psychological safety mean?
Let me illustrate the term with a practical example:
About a year ago, I moderated a retrospective in a self-organised team. The goal of the retrospective was to find out why the internal feedback process was not achieving the desired output and what needed to be changed.
The team collected challenges, formulated hypotheses and investigated the possible causes. In the final phase of the retrospective, concrete action items and to-dos were derived. The participants’ faces were beaming and the team felt that they finally knew what specific changes they could make to get the feedback process rolling.
What struck me was one participant who, unlike the others, was less beaming, but looked around thoughtfully and was quieter than before. I asked her, ‘Is there anything else that needs to be said?’ She hesitated briefly.
Then she said, ‘We talk all the time about giving feedback on roles… but there aren’t clearly defined roles for everyone, or at least I don’t know them yet.’ This statement not only changed the mood in the room, but also the results of the retrospective. The others realised that she was right. The responsibilities and roles were only known to the rest of the team because they had been there longer; they had not been defined.
This moment was a turning point and the first step towards a truly effective feedback process. But how often do team members dare to voice such thoughts? Far too often, they remain unspoken, whether out of fear, insecurity or a lack of trust within the team.
But it is precisely this courage, this openness and also the positive reaction of the team that constitutes psychological safety.
Psychological safety means that people in a team dare to ask questions, even if they sound stupid or critical. They can admit mistakes without being punished for them. They can express criticism without being excluded afterwards and question the status quo without worrying about embarrassment or even disadvantages for their own careers.
Researcher Timothy R. Clark sums it up: ‘Psychological safety is a state in which you feel included, feel safe to learn, feel confident to contribute, and feel confident to challenge the status quo – all without fear of embarrassment, exclusion or punishment.’
How can you build psychological safety in your everyday work?
Clarks’ definition is based on his model of the four stages of psychological safety. [2] This provides not only a theoretical model, but also concrete step-by-step instructions. Psychological safety is not a coincidence; it can be actively shaped and exemplified. Managers play a central role in this.
Anyone who wants to build psychological safety in their team can use these four stages as a guide.
1. Inclusion Safety – Building trust & shaping relationships
Team members feel accepted, regardless of their role, title or opinion. They experience informal belonging without having to pretend to be someone they are not.
2. Learner Safety – A radically honest feedback culture
Team members are allowed to make mistakes and learn. They ask questions, even critical ones, try new things, actively seek feedback and give it to others. They are supported rather than judged.
3. Contributor Safety – Autonomy and responsibility within the team
Team members are allowed to take responsibility and contribute. They are given autonomy and responsibility in their roles, can make their own decisions and contribute to the team’s success.
4. Challenger Safety – Questioning sacred cows
Team members are allowed and encouraged to question the status quo. They openly address critical issues, repeatedly question the status quo and contribute new ideas without fear of negative reactions or consequences.
Building trust and shaping relationships
The ability to build human relationships within a team ultimately defines everything that concerns cooperation thereafter. For this reason, the first level of psychological safety is also the basis for all further levels. When people join a new team, they are formally part of that team, but this does not create an informal sense of belonging.
This form of connection arises when we look at the things that connect us and lie dormant beneath the surface. Genuine connection arises in moments when we share our vulnerability and recognise that we are not alone in it.
Research confirms this: studies by the MIT Human Dynamics Lab show that the faster and more deeply teams get to know each other, the more effectively they work.
It is precisely this closeness that creates empathy, which in turn can lead to trust. [3]
However, this form of getting to know each other is often hindered by our own insecurity and the professionalism we display in a work context. We don’t dare to show ourselves vulnerable and talk about what challenges us, what weaknesses we have or even what irritating character traits we may have. But it is precisely this kind of exchange that creates connection and, with it, trust.
A few weeks ago, I gave an online deep dive on the topic of trust in a large organisation. The participants did not know each other; they were people from very different areas and teams. At the beginning of the deep dive, most of the participants joined the call without their cameras on. After a short introduction, we conducted a deep check in small breakout sessions with different questions, such as:
- What was a major challenge in my life that I overcame, and what helped me do so?
- What is my greatest fear?
- What am I particularly proud of in my life?
- When did I once feel excluded or like I didn’t belong, and what would I have wanted in that moment?
The amazing thing about this short exercise was that almost everyone came back after the breakout session with their camera on and a smile on their face. When I reflected this back to them and asked how the exchange had been for them and what the biggest ‘aha’ moment of the exercise had been, the feedback included: ‘I can’t believe how quickly you can gain sympathy and closeness to someone you’ve never seen before.’
I’m telling you this example because it shows that even brief moments of genuine attention and vulnerability help to build connections. You don’t always have to spend two days with your team at a fancy team-building event to achieve this. No, it’s the little moments in between, full of genuine attention, authenticity and humanity, that make a difference.
And it is precisely these kinds of deep check-ins that managers can use, for example, to shape relationships within their team and build genuine trust.
Radically honest feedback culture
The second level of psychological safety deals with learner safety. This involves making feedback a natural part of everyday work, just like the weekly meeting. If we really want to live in such a culture, we need formats that enable this behavior.
Once we have established relationships and trust within the team so that everything can be said without fear of being excluded as a person, good feedback formats can create a work culture that enables real learning.
It’s about being able to ask questions without fear of looking stupid or ignorant, making mistakes without being punished for them, and creating a learning process through radically honest feedback that gets the most out of your work.
But what are the phrases we hear in companies?
- ‘If I ask for help, I look weak.’
- ‘Don’t ask so many questions, just do your job.’
- ‘We have to smooth this mistake over somehow before anyone notices.’
And that is exactly what prevents teams and people from truly developing.
As a manager, you have the opportunity to establish formats that promote a learning culture that allows questions, mistakes and feedback.
Retrospectives are a good example of this. Regularly looking back and also forward in a safe space – without assigning blame – strengthens feedback as an integral part of everyday work and makes learning a tangible experience.
Autonomy and responsibility within the team
Ryan and Deci’s self-determination theory identifies three basic psychological needs that every person feels and wants to fulfil, albeit with varying degrees of priority: connectedness, autonomy and competence. [4]
The third of the four stages of psychological safety, known as contributor safety, is about giving employees autonomy. This gives them a sense of competence, as they are not only part of a team, but can also make a real contribution.
Timothy R. Clark uses an analogy from sport to illustrate this stage. When you join a sports team and feel accepted, you develop a sense of belonging. If you then take part in training regularly, you learn and develop. However, if you always sit on the bench, never get to play and therefore never contribute to the team’s success, you will never reach your full potential.
The same applies to employees, and not only that: in the worst case, the lack of a sense of contribution can lead to internal or even actual resignation. That is why it is important to transfer responsibility to employees step by step.
On the one hand, this can be done by describing roles that provide a clear framework within which employees can contribute. On the other hand, this responsibility can be handed over to employees bit by bit using the ‘Delegation Poker’ tool, for example, which also creates transparency about the current status and development path.
Questioning sacred cows
The most challenging stage of all is the final stage, Challenger Safety. This stage is about constantly questioning the work of the team as well as the processes, ideas and concepts. Nowadays, corporate success depends precisely on this kind of growth. Those who do everything the way it has always been done will, in the worst case, soon find themselves doing nothing at all.
Here, too, it is important to actively promote this behavior as a manager. For example, you can repeatedly ask questions such as:
- What if we didn’t have any more meetings?
- What if everyone in the team was allowed to make all the decisions themselves?
- What if we not only accepted mistakes, but celebrated them?
- What if we radically simplified our entire process?
But that’s easier said than done, because who likes to question their own work? That’s exactly why it’s important to invest time in the stages that come before.
Conclusion
At its core, psychological safety means working without fear. In an environment with psychological safety, you feel accepted for who you are. It’s like being among good friends. You feel confident to ask questions, even if they seem silly, and admit when you don’t know something without fear of being seen as ‘stupid.’
You take responsibility, make an active contribution and dare to speak the truth, no matter who is in the room.
Without this security, self-protection takes over our actions.
Psychological safety creates space for honesty, genuine participation and effective collaboration. It is not a nice-to-have when there is time for it, it is a must-have. And it is the invisible booster for successful teams!
Notes:
Are you interested in teamwork and the development of psychological safety? Then take a look at the great website by Rebecca Hartmann. Feel free to get in touch if you are interested in team workshops, individual coaching, training or keynote speeches.
[1] Google Project Aristotle – 5 Keys to Team Success
[2] Timothy R. Clark: The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety: Defining the Path to Inclusion and Innovation
[3] Alex „Sandy“ Pentland, The New Science of Building Great Teams, Harvard-Business Review, April 2012
[4] The self-determination theory of Ryan and Deci
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy C. Edmondson, who coined the term psychological safety, is also recommended.
Die angstfreie Organisation – Wie Sie psychologische Sicherheit am Arbeitsplatz mehr Entwicklung, Lernen und Innovation schaffen von Amy C. Edmondson, auf die der Begriff Psychologische Sicherheit zurückgeht, ist ebenfalls zu empfehlen.
Here you will find an article on promoting psychological safety in meetings.
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Rebecca Hartmann has published two more articles on the t2informatik Blog:

Rebecca Hartmann
Rebecca Hartmann is a business psychologist, systemic team developer and coach. She believes that good cooperation does not just happen, but is consciously shaped. She supports managers and teams in enabling truly effective cooperation: with psychological security as a foundation, clear roles as a structure and formats that really work in everyday life. In doing so, she draws on her many years of organisational experience and combines her psychological knowledge with her systemic expertise.
In the t2informatik Blog, we publish articles for people in organisations. For these people, we develop and modernise software. Pragmatic. ✔️ Personal. ✔️ Professional. ✔️ Click here to find out more.