Psychological Safety: The Key to High-Performing Teams and How to Build It

When Google launched Project Aristotle in 2012, their main goal was to discover what makes an effective team. To do that, they studied over 180 teams across multiple different disciplines, team types, sizes, and industries, testing more than 250 variables from personality types to office layout. 

And what were their findings? A surprise, actually. 

The strongest predictor of high-performing teams wasn’t seniority, budget, or even raw skill: it was psychological safety. 

But this concept of "psychological safety” wasn’t born overnight. Amy Edmondson, a scholar at Harvard Business School, coined the phrase team psychological safety decades ago, describing it as a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking—meaning team members feel comfortable speaking up, admitting mistakes, or offering dissenting views. Which, let’s be honest, can be pretty difficult to do in a professional environment.  

These aren’t just academic hypotheses, though. Teams with high psychological safety are more creative, resilient, and engaged. They catch errors early because people feel safe bringing them forward. They push boundaries because people feel safe experimenting. They have productive 1:1s because employees feel free to debate and share concerns without fear of repercussions. And, overall, they tend to outperform teams that operate in silence or fear. 

No Fancy Words. Just What It Really Looks Like

Psychological safety isn’t the same as having no standards or avoiding all conflict. In fact, the most effective versions of it are dynamic. They allow healthy debate, challenge, and discomfort within a framework of respect and belonging.

Consider this: one staple of psychologically safe teams is that they admit when they don’t know something. Another: mistakes are treated as opportunities, not punishments. These behaviors reinforce the message: “Your input matters, especially when it’s hard.” 

In many high-performing teams studied by Google, conversational equity was a big point that stood out. Team members shared the “spotlight,” if you will, fairly, so quieter voices were heard...and those quieter voices wanted to be heard. Also, social sensitivity—how attuned people are to each other’s emotional cues—was stronger. 

In short, teams with high psychological safety didn’t just talk more. They listened more thoughtfully. Those two really play hand-in-hand in creating a safe, comfortable, and open work environment. 

How Leaders & Teams Can Build It (In Real Life)

Cultivating psychological safety takes more than goodwill. It’s a practice. An ongoing effort. But we promise it’s easier sad than done 😄

Here are some ways to get started: 

• First, model vulnerability. Leaders who admit their own mistakes or uncertainties send a powerful signal: it’s okay to be imperfect. This doesn’t mean oversharing, but instead promoting and advocating for thoughtful transparency throughout your organization (starting at the top down).
• Second, invite and amplify every voice. In meetings, don’t let loudest voices dominate. Ask quieter team members directly, or rotate who leads discussions. When someone speaks up, echo and build on their ideas. 
  
  • Quieter voices…nervous to do so because that’s not how things have historically been done? Schedule 1:1 time to make sure their voice is heard by you. Maybe showing that interest will help them see just how important their voice is. 
• Third, respond productively. When someone shares a concern, don’t shut it down or ask them to just “fill out a form.” Instead, ask clarification questions, show interest, thank them for their honesty, or say “I need time to think about this.” That response preserves safety more than a quick “okay” or the stress of an unreplied-to Slack message.
• Fourth, create regular low-stakes rituals of connection. Casual check-ins, short team-building exercises, or creative challenges help people lower guards and see each other as people, not just coworkers. You may even find some common interests with people you would’ve never spoken to otherwise!
• Finally, reinforce learning and experimentation. Celebrate curiosity and iteration, even when outcomes aren’t perfect. If the team sees that risk-taking is honored, it becomes more natural. Most of the time, A/B Testing and taking risks isn’t the end of the world.

In a Harvard Business School study of modern organizations, Edmondson and others distilled patterns across 185 research articles. Psychological safety isn’t just “nice to have,” it’s critical in a world of complexity and uncertainty, especially when we spend so much time at work alongside our coworkers. 

How Team Experiences Can Help Practice Safety

It’s one thing to talk about psychological safety. It’s another to practice it. 

Shared team experiences, especially low-stakes, playful, or casual ones, offer the perfect foundation to build trust and community.

Want some practical examples? 

Through creative classes—like painting, cooking, or origami—teams practice being vulnerable in a non-work setting, making mistakes, experimenting, and receiving gentle feedback.

Logic-based challenges—like escape rooms, trivia games, or puzzles—invite every team member to contribute in different ways with their different skills, reinforcing that every voice matters.

Casual rituals—like watercooler chats, mixers, or iconic happy hours—make it easier for quieter folks to join in. Over time, those small moments shift norms about who speaks and how ideas flow.

These experiences aren’t about entertainment…they’re strategic: they give teams examples of healthy risk, curiosity, and empathy in action.

What Trips Teams Up (and How to Recover)

Even the most well-intentioned teams can stumble when building psychological safety. It’s not about avoiding mistakes, it’s about knowing how to respond when things go sideways.

One common pitfall is confusing safety with comfort. Teams might think psychological safety means everyone agrees all the time or avoids hard conversations. In reality, safety thrives on productive discomfort. A healthy debate—where ideas are challenged respectfully—can strengthen trust, not weaken it. If tension arises, leaders should model curiosity instead of defensiveness, asking questions like, “Help me understand your perspective.”

Another trap is treating psychological safety like a one-off initiative. Hosting a single workshop or team-building activity is a great start, but without consistent reinforcement, old patterns creep back in. Recovery is simple: embed small rituals (weekly check-ins, casual creative exercises, or short reflection moments) so that safe behaviors become the norm rather than the exception.

Teams can also falter when follow-through is missing. Someone speaks up with an idea or concern, only to see it ignored. This quickly erodes trust. The fix? Acknowledge contributions publicly, provide feedback, and close the loop. Even small gestures, like a “thank you for flagging this” email, signal that voices are heard and valued.

Finally, there’s the balance between safety and accountability. Some leaders worry that promoting safety means lowering standards. The opposite is true: high-performing teams hold each other accountable, but they do it in a way that preserves trust. Mistakes become learning opportunities rather than occasions for blame, and curiosity is celebrated alongside results.

In practice, recovery often looks like: a leader modeling vulnerability after a misstep, a team revisiting ground rules after tension arises, or a facilitator guiding a reflective exercise to repair trust. Psychological safety isn’t static—it’s cultivated, maintained, and sometimes mended. And when teams actively work on it, even setbacks become opportunities to grow stronger together.

The Journey Begins with Small Steps

Psychological safety doesn’t emerge overnight. Start small: ask for feedback in your next meeting, share a personal lesson learned, or pilot a short team-building experience. When those actions are consistent, they weave a culture where people feel heard, trusted, and free to do their best work.

In that space, teams don’t just survive. They grow, adapt, and bring out their highest potential.

👉 Ready to put psychological safety into practice? Try an experience that invites collaboration, curiosity, and play with Confetti’s team culture experiences as one way to spark that shift.