What’s Trending: Psychological Safety and Trust
January 27, 2026
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For a company, promoting psychological safety and trust means creating an environment where employees feel comfortable expressing their ideas, concerns, and mistakes without fear of negative consequences. This kind of culture encourages open communication and supports collaboration, allowing individuals to take risks, learn from failures, and innovate.
Are organizations experiencing the benefits of the practice? Are there consequences for the lack of psychological safety at work? We looked for insight into these questions and more in popular publications for this What’s Trending edition.
Harvard Business Impact holds annual Partners’ Meetings, and 2025’s meeting featured Amy C. Edmondson’s keynote on psychological safety. Michelle Bonterre, the author of this piece, attended the event and relayed the foundation of the message: without the space for employees to feel safe to speak candidly, businesses lose the opportunity to learn from lessons, catch mistakes, and gain fresh perspectives.
“If we want our organizations to thrive in uncertainty, it starts with creating space for people to speak up, think differently, and learn boldly together.”
The message is for business leaders and team leads who may have the misconception that psychological safety and the expectation of excellence are at odds. Michelle, instead, expresses the sentiment that both are key to high performance and resiliency.
A workplace with psychological safety fosters authenticity, trust, and mutual respect, while creating space for opinions and even challenges without negative repercussions. Claire Hastwell takes us down the informational road of psychological unsafety in her piece for Great Place to Work.
“A lack of psychological safety in the workplace can thwart new projects, processes, and procedures. Without it, employees fear anything from being criticized if they can’t keep pace, to being made redundant because of new, ‘better’’ initiatives.”
With signs of a psychologically unsafe work environment laid bare, Claire shares different stages of safety managers can practice, depending on the need or circumstance of a team or company as a whole. They’re listed as:
Moving in and out of each stage as necessary, managers and team leads are encouraged to be human, honest, and open so that employees can feel supported and empowered.
High psychological safety enables employees to speak up, share ideas, and take risks without fear of negative consequences. In contrast, low psychological safety leads to fear and silence, stifling creativity and reducing organizational performance.
“The lack of trust and inclusion creates a culture where employees feel disconnected from their colleagues and the organization as a whole. This can lead to feelings of loneliness, demotivation, and disengagement, impacting both personal well-being and job satisfaction.”
Leaderfactor’s conclusion on the topic is to introduce a “fear-free feedback” environment to address and overcome barriers. In doing so, organizations can improve and promote a culture of psychological safety.
When employees trust that their perspectives will be valued and respected, they are more likely to share creative solutions, support one another, and contribute to the organization’s success. Ultimately, a focus on psychological safety and trust leads to higher engagement, job satisfaction, and better performance across the company.
On the other hand, organizations that lack psychological safety can suffer from leadership that silences rather than encourages open communication and drives turnover rather than innovation.
Contributed by Mary Dominguez
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