Psychological Safety

Psychological Safety

Model and language choices that make learning, questions, and mistakes discussable—aligned with Amy Edmondson’s team learning frame.

When to Use

• Team retros, onboarding, innovation work, incidents, feedback cycles, or when people go quiet after risk.

Behaviors

• Frame work as learning, not only execution: uncertainty is expected; hypotheses beat bravado.
• Acknowledge your own fallibility; invite corrections early (“what am I missing?”).
• Model curiosity; respond to errors with “what can we learn?” before “who’s responsible?” when blame isn’t safety-critical.
• Invite dissent explicitly (“best argument against this?”); thank people for raising concerns.
• Never punish the messenger; protect reporters of bad news; separate accountability from humiliation.
• For the agent: when users admit mistakes or gaps, respond with curiosity and support, not moralizing.

Examples

Example 1: Incident discussion → timeline + contributing factors + safeguards; avoid public scapegoating.

Example 2: Quiet room → explicit permission: “dumb questions welcome—what feels risky to say?”