3 Steps to Set Your Team Up for Success with Psychological Safety

Let’s imagine you’ve just taken on a new team, and you want to set the tone for high performance from day one. Or perhaps you've been leading a team for some time and now feel that it's the perfect moment to elevate the team dynamics to reach even higher goals.

In both cases, you’ll need more than just a clear strategy and skilled individuals.

You need to foster an environment where everyone feels safe to share their ideas, take risks, and learn from mistakes. This is where psychological safety becomes critical. It creates the conditions for trust, collaboration, and innovation — the ingredients your team needs to truly excel.

What’s psychological safety?

Psychological safety, a term coined by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson, refers to the belief that within a team, members won’t be punished or embarrassed for voicing their opinions, ideas, questions, or concerns.

It’s an environment where people can take risks and admit mistakes without fear of being blamed or rejected. In this type of atmosphere, team members are more likely to share bold ideas, address potential problems early, and work more collaboratively.

Why should you care?

Because psychological safety is the foundation of high performance. When team members feel safe, they’re more engaged, creative, and willing to go the extra mile.

Research* has shown that teams with high psychological safety are more innovative and adaptable — they’re better at problem-solving and decision-making. Without it, team members may withhold valuable input, leading to missed opportunities, inefficiencies, and unresolved issues.

*Research: Bresman, Henrik, and Amy C. Edmondson. "Exploring the Relationship between Team Diversity, Psychological Safety and Team Performance: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Drug Development." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 22-055, February 2022.

So, how do you build this foundation from day one, or strengthen it if you're already leading the team? Start with these 3 essential steps.

Step 1: Align business goals with team dynamics

When you bring a new team together, it's crucial to establish a clear understanding of what success looks like — not just in terms of outcomes, but also in terms of how the team will work together to reach those goals.

Start by articulating the specific objectives the team is expected to accomplish. Whether it’s launching a new product, improving customer satisfaction, or driving operational efficiency, these goals must be clear and aligned with the overall organizational strategy. But beyond the “what,” it’s equally important to focus on the “how.”

For instance, if your goal is to innovate, your team will need to take risks, share new ideas, and experiment — all of which require an environment where they feel safe to fail.

If your goal is to improve customer relations, team members need to feel comfortable voicing concerns and sharing insights, even if those insights challenge the status quo.

Practical tip: In your next meeting, clearly connect the dots between the team’s business objectives and the type of climate needed to achieve them. Discuss how psychological safety will allow for better problem-solving, more creative ideas, and smoother collaboration, all of which will directly impact the team’s ability to reach its goals.

Step 2: Introduce “check-Ins” as a standard team practice

Check-ins are brief moments at the beginning of each meeting where every team member has the chance to share how they’re feeling or any concerns they have.

This not only allows for personal expression but also fosters connection and empathy within the team. By acknowledging what’s happening below the surface — both individually and collectively — check-ins build psychological safety by showing that the team is a space where emotions, stressors, and ideas can be openly discussed without judgment.

This not only build personal connections but also helps you to help each other with current tasks and concerns.

In addition to fostering personal connections, check-ins serve a practical purpose: they create opportunities for the team to identify and address current challenges or concerns in real-time.

When team members openly share how they’re feeling or what’s on their plate, it becomes easier for others to step in, offer support, or adjust workflows to better balance the load.

Practical Tip: After each check-in, take a moment to ask the group if there’s anything specific they can help each other with. For example, say: “Is there anything you need support with today?” or “Is there a challenge someone’s facing that we can work through together?” This creates an immediate opportunity for team members to offer assistance, whether it’s sharing advice, adjusting priorities, or reassigning tasks.

Step 3: Emphasize the importance of learning from failure

In psychologically safe environments, team members see mistakes as learning opportunities, not career-ending events.

Teams need to understand from the beginning that failure is part of growth and that everyone will make mistakes. What matters most is how the team reacts and learns from those experiences.

Leaders who adopt a learning-oriented mindset create room for experimentation and innovation. If your team fears making mistakes, they’ll shy away from taking risks — but risks are often where breakthroughs happen.

Practical tip: Share examples of past failures (either personal or from others) and what you learned from them. Establish a norm where, after every project or initiative, you conduct a "lessons learned" discussion to reflect on what went well and what can be improved.

What's Next?

The three steps outlined here are just the foundation for building a high-performing team with psychological safety. However, if you want to take it a step further and gain deeper insights into your team's dynamics, I offer a comprehensive process using the Fearless Organization Scan.

Here’s how I can help you:

1. 1:1 Leader Session: I start by meeting with you, the leader, to discuss your team's context and business goals. We connect these goals to psychological safety outcomes, ensuring alignment between your objectives and team dynamics.
2. Team Introduction Session: I then introduce your team to the concept of psychological safety, explaining its importance and how it impacts performance. During this session, the team is also presented with the Fearless Organization Scan as a tool to measure their team’s psychological safety.
3. Survey Completion: The team completes a short, evidence-based survey that consists of just 7 questions, taking only 3 minutes to complete. The survey is highly validated and gives an accurate picture of the team's current psychological safety level.
4. Team Debrief: I meet with the team and the leadership for a 4-hour debrief session where we review your personalized scan results and work together to create a tailored plan to improve psychological safety based on the findings.
5. Leader Follow-Up: After the team process, I conduct a follow-up session with the leader to provide specific recommendations and define the next steps. Your team can then implement the improvement plan and, in a few months, re-scan to measure tangible progress.

This approach not only helps you diagnose and address current issues but also provides a roadmap for continuous improvement.

By following these steps, your team won’t just learn about psychological safety — you will experience it firsthand, together, with my guidance.

With psychological safety as your foundation, your team will feel empowered to innovate, share ideas freely, and tackle challenges head-on — setting the stage for sustained success.