This standard requires leaders to actively create conditions in which people feel safe to speak honestly, raise concerns, admit mistakes, and challenge ideas — including the ideas of those with more power. Psychological safety is not a personality trait of teams; it is a product of leadership behaviour.
It supports the policy "Foster Psychological Safety" by making safety-building a leadership accountability with observable, measurable behaviours.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Speaking up is risky; people know the consequences of challenging leaders. - Silence is misread as agreement. |
| Process & Governance | - No mechanisms for raising concerns safely. - Culture of blame when things go wrong actively suppresses honesty. |
| Technology & Tools | - No anonymous feedback channels or speak-up tools. - Concern-raising is informal and discouraged. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Psychological safety not measured. - Problems surface only after they cause visible damage. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Some leaders welcome challenge but inconsistently. - Psychological safety present in some teams, absent in others. |
| Process & Governance | - Some speak-up mechanisms exist but culture limits their use. - Blameless retrospectives attempted but not always achieved. |
| Technology & Tools | - Anonymous feedback tools available but underused. - Safety mechanisms present but trust in them is limited. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Engagement surveys include safety questions. - Action on safety concerns inconsistent. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Leaders actively model vulnerability, curiosity, and openness to challenge. - Disagreement welcomed and rewarded in team settings. |
| Process & Governance | - Clear, trusted mechanisms for raising concerns exist and are actively used. - Blameless retrospectives consistently practised. |
| Technology & Tools | - Multiple safe channels for concern-raising, from anonymous to direct. - Leaders respond visibly and constructively to concerns raised. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Psychological safety measured through regular pulse surveys. - Leaders reviewed on safety-creating behaviours in 360 feedback. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Psychological safety tracked as a leading indicator of team performance. - Leaders coached on specific behaviours that build and erode safety. |
| Process & Governance | - Safety measurement integrated into team health governance. - Leaders held accountable for safety scores in their teams. |
| Technology & Tools | - Safety data feeds leadership effectiveness and team health dashboards. - Correlation between safety scores and outcomes visible and acted on. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Psychological safety scores reported alongside engagement and performance data. - Safety trends analysed to identify systemic leadership behaviours needing change. |
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| People & Culture | - Psychological safety is a deeply embedded cultural norm, not a periodic initiative. - Leaders are valued for the quality of environment they create, not just the results they deliver. |
| Process & Governance | - Safety practices continuously refined based on feedback and emerging research. - Safety culture a strategic input to talent, innovation, and performance strategy. |
| Technology & Tools | - Real-time safety signals inform leadership behaviour and coaching. - Safety infrastructure invisible but consistently effective. |
| Measurement & Metrics | - Psychological safety a standing board-level people metric. - Safety-to-performance correlation tracked organisation-wide over time. |