Psychological safety has emerged as one of the most critical factors in creating workplaces that foster employee well-being, innovation, and long-term success. While some organizations have started to prioritize it, few have embraced it on a global scale. One such initiative began within a large pharmaceutical company as a grassroots movement focused on aligning company values with employee experiences, eventually expanding far beyond the company’s walls.
Pioneering a paradigm shift in the corporate world, Jessica Bench has become the catalyst for a global movement emphasizing psychological safety within the workplace through Vanguard Voices. With a vision that took root within the confines of her large pharma company, Jessica’s initiative has flourished, now engaging thousands of enthusiasts and transcending the boundaries of her initial domain.
Understanding Psychological Safety
Psychological safety refers to an environment where individuals feel comfortable expressing their thoughts, concerns, and ideas without fear of negative consequences. It’s the foundation of open communication, innovation, and strong team dynamics. When employees feel psychologically safe, they are more likely to share ideas, ask questions, and offer honest feedback, which leads to better collaboration and problem-solving.
Without psychological safety, efforts to improve areas such as diversity and inclusion, mental health support, and preventing burnout often fall short. These initiatives may end up as checkbox exercises rather than delivering meaningful impact. Prioritizing psychological safety allows these programs to thrive by creating an atmosphere where employees can fully engage without hesitation.
The Birth of a Movement
About five years ago, a movement to promote psychological safety began within a large pharmaceutical company. What started as a response to a leadership directive to “be bold” and “speak up” quickly turned into a larger effort to create real change. Jessica Bensch, an award-winning leader and Agile coach, addressed her colleagues at a company event, voicing concerns that the organization’s values weren’t always reflected in its actions. She challenged her peers to join her in addressing this issue.
Jessica’s speech struck a chord. Forty to fifty employees immediately signed up to support the initiative, forming a core team that drove the movement. Over the next three years, the movement grew to include over 25,000 followers. It became a platform for employees to engage in honest conversations, share their experiences, and promote a culture where people felt empowered to speak up. As Jessica recalls, “This is a human topic… we need to feel free to express our thoughts in the workplace without fear.”
Why Psychological Safety Is Essential
Psychological safety is the foundation for success in any team or organization. Research shows that teams with high psychological safety outperform others because they foster open communication and collaboration. It enables companies to go beyond surface-level change and make meaningful improvements to workplace culture.
One of the key issues in many organizations is that leaders receive extensive coaching, but the rest of the workforce is often left out. This creates a disconnect between leadership’s intentions and employees’ experiences. While leadership development is important, organizations need to take a more holistic approach that includes employees at every level. Only when everyone feels safe to voice concerns, share ideas, and contribute fully can real change occur.
Prioritizing Psychological Safety in the Workplace
For organizations that want to prioritize psychological safety, it’s crucial to embed it into their culture, policies, and day-to-day practices. It can’t just live in mission statements or as a set of core values displayed on the wall. To truly make psychological safety part of the organizational DNA, companies need to create specific mechanisms that encourage open dialogue and support difficult conversations.
One effective approach is to introduce regular training and awareness programs that emphasize the importance of psychological safety. However, these initiatives must go beyond one-time workshops or webinars. It requires ongoing reinforcement through consistent communication and practice.
Transparency is another essential element. Organizations should consider making the results of employee engagement surveys more transparent, especially when it comes to feedback related to psychological safety. Sharing this information can spark meaningful conversations and create a sense of shared responsibility for improving the work environment.
Exit interviews are also an opportunity for organizations to gather valuable insights about the work environment. Too often, the feedback collected during these interviews remains confidential. Sharing anonymized comments and themes from exit interviews can provide valuable information about why employees leave and what changes are necessary to improve retention and engagement.
The Role of Leadership
Leadership plays a critical role in fostering psychological safety. To be effective, leaders must model the behavior they want to see in their organizations. This includes being open to feedback, admitting mistakes, and encouraging honest conversations. When leaders create an environment where people feel safe to speak up, they build trust and encourage a culture of openness.
However, Jessica emphasized that it’s not enough for leaders to just say they support psychological safety—they need to live it out in their actions. “Leaders at the top have to be living that out,” she explains. Without leadership modeling the way, psychological safety initiatives will struggle to gain traction across the organization.
One key tactic for fostering leadership accountability is encouraging upward feedback, where employees can provide honest input to their managers. Organizations should facilitate these conversations in a safe and constructive manner, perhaps with the help of coaches or Agile practitioners, to ensure that feedback flows both ways.
What a Psychologically Safe Workplace Looks Like
In a truly psychologically safe workplace, employees don’t feel the need to wear a “corporate mask” or hide their true selves. They can ask questions, share ideas, and challenge the status quo without fear of negative consequences. This openness allows teams to learn from each other and fosters innovation.
At the team level, psychological safety can be reinforced through specific practices, such as using a team canvas. This collaborative tool helps teams define their values, purpose, and working rituals, ensuring that everyone is aligned and feels ownership over the team’s culture. These small but meaningful practices create an environment where employees can contribute fully without fear of judgment.
On a larger scale, organizations can implement systems and processes that support psychological safety. For example, employee engagement surveys should include questions directly related to psychological safety, such as whether employees feel comfortable expressing their thoughts without fear of repercussions. Regularly gathering and analyzing this data can help organizations track their progress and identify areas for improvement.
Creating a Global Movement
The effort to promote psychological safety isn’t just about improving individual workplaces—it’s part of a broader global movement. Across industries and regions, employees are experiencing similar challenges in feeling safe to express themselves in their work environments. By coming together and sharing their stories, employees and organizations can drive collective change.
Events like the Speak Up Summit, which brought together over 50 speakers from around the world to discuss psychological safety, are an example of how this movement is gaining momentum. These initiatives are helping to raise awareness and encourage more organizations to take action.
As Jessica puts it, “Too many of us are too quiet about what we’re seeing in our workplaces… but you’re not alone.” Psychological safety is a universal human need, and creating environments where people feel safe to speak up is essential for fostering healthier, more productive workplaces.
Psychological safety is critical to the success of both individuals and organizations. When employees feel safe to express their thoughts and ideas, it leads to better collaboration, innovation, and overall performance. Organizations that prioritize psychological safety will not only see improvements in employee engagement and retention but will also create cultures where people can thrive.
For organizations looking to create lasting change, the first step is to acknowledge the importance of psychological safety and integrate it into their culture, leadership practices, and day-to-day operations. As more companies join this movement, workplaces around the world will become healthier, more inclusive, and more successful places for everyone.
Listen to the episode: Gut + Science | Episode 238: Why a Global Movement for Psychological Safety is Needed with Jessica Bensch
Key Takeaways:
- Psychological safety in the workplace
- Leadership modeling and accountability
- Rituals for team success
- Transparency and employee feedback
- Movement for cultural change
- Measuring psychological safety
- Importance of hard conversations
Things to listen for:
[00:07:14] Individuals, teams, and organizations prioritize safe spaces.
[00:11:01] Adapt language, seek psychological safety in workplace.
[00:15:13] Team unlearning, cultural shift, leadership and movement.
[00:18:27] Agile coach sets up team for success.
[00:20:25] Encourage exit interviews, upward feedback for accountability.
[00:24:51] Consistency in feedback is crucial for accuracy.
[00:26:16] Emphasize the one thing to advance forward.
[00:30:48] Team values & rituals, transparent feedback, psychological safety.
