A lack of psychological safety can quietly undermine even the most talented teams. Imagine a situation where employees hesitate to ask questions, suggest new ideas, or admit mistakes. In such environments, teams experience stalled innovation, poor decision-making, and reduced performance.

Without a sense of psychological safety, fear of judgment or retaliation prevents team members from fully contributing, resulting in disengagement, siloed thinking, and missed opportunities for growth.

Real-world examples:
* Medical errors in healthcare settings often go unreported due to fear of blame, leading to avoidable harm.
* Tech companies with brilliant engineers fail to innovate because junior staff are afraid to challenge senior leadership.
* Corporate teams become stagnant, unable to adapt to changing markets, because members are too afraid to voice new ideas or concerns.

Objectives:

Learners will be able to define psychological safety and explain its significance.

Learners will be able to identify and describe the key elements of a psychologically safe environment.

Learners will be able to differentiate between signs of a psychologically safe and unsafe team environment.