ATD Blog
Psychological Safety for Learning Teams
Are you actively fostering a culture of psychological safety for your team members?
Thu Mar 12 2026
Does your organization provide managers with training on trust building, positive culture, psychological safety, or a similar topic? I would guess the answer is a resounding “yes.” But does that mean the culture and dynamics of your learning team are automatically filled with trust, a positive culture, or psychological safety? That’s a “no.”
Here’s a brief refresher for those of you who have heard the term (or maybe even use it in conversation!), psychological safety. “In the hierarchy of needs, psychological safety straddles fulfillment, belonging, and security needs… Once the basic physical needs of food and shelter are met, psychological safety becomes a priority,” as Clark writes in The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety (2020).
Now, for our managers, supervisors, and learning team leaders, reflect on your actions as a leader. Are you actively fostering a culture of psychological safety for your team members?
If yes, how? Invest time identifying 3–4 ways you actively practice.
If your answer is no (or even yes, but you’d like to improve), keep reading. And, for those of you who may not currently be in a management role, keep reading so you have tools to integrate into your future leadership.
Clark continues, “In organizations, it’s an uncontested finding that high psychological safety drives performance and innovation, while low psychological safety incurs the disabling costs of low productivity and high attrition.” Understanding this can motivate leaders to prioritize psychological safety for better results.
As respect and permission grow within team environments, we see folks moving through four important stages of safety. Recognizing these stages may help you understand how to support your team’s growth.
Inclusion Safety (admittance to the team)
Learner Safety (engaging discovery processes)
Contributor Safety (participation)
Challenger Safety (confidence to challenge the status quo)
How can you, as a manager or leader of a learning team, create space for folks to experience these types of safety? A foundational starting point is by intentionally integrating a coaching approach into your work as the team or department leader.
Here are a few practical ways to integrate coaching with your team into your work as a learning leader.
Use an idea quota. Have you ever extended an invitation to your team to provide ideas or help brainstorm, and it went nowhere? While many reasons could be at play, using an idea quota is a great way to move the conversation forward. Idea quotas can be helpful because they allow folks to share ideas they may otherwise feel are uncertain. By having each person contribute 10, 15, or 20 ideas, the conversation moves past the conventional 1–2 ideas that may feel certain or acceptable. Integrating an idea quota in planning or brainstorming meetings is a great way to open the door to innovation. Folks know they have to provide a specific number of ideas. I have seen firsthand that they often become less hesitant or reserved about sharing thoughts to achieve the quota.
Celebrate participation. Are you gifted with coming up with an amazing idea within 15 seconds of your boss or team asking you a question? Even if you have that gift, most people do not. Innovation comes when folks work together and contribute their best. Integrate ways for folks to participate in the work both synchronously and asynchronously. Synchronous work may feel “easier” to a manager because it can be simply sending out a meeting invite (“agenda to follow”). But by integrating asynchronous work into the mix as well, the manager is then required to plan and think ahead. Consider sending out pre-work so folks can start exploring before the meeting, or integrate a collaborative whiteboard before, during, and after the scheduled meeting to capture feedback.
Practice what you preach. Does your learning team run strengths programs using CliftonStrengths, VIA, or another type of strengths assessment? Many of you would say yes. But have you applied the strengths-based leadership approach to your own team? How might you be more intentional about building team dynamics around developing and celebrating the strengths of folks on your team?
Being a manager, supervisor, or leader of a learning team takes intention. Integrating coaching into the foundation of how you manage the team or department is one way to help strengthen and instill psychological safety with those you lead.
What is one action you will put into place this week to strengthen the psychological safety of your learning team?
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