Building a culture of safety starts with one simple question: “What am I missing?”
Written by Scott D. Hanton, PhD Interviewing Minette Norman and Karolin Helbig
Labs are constantly striving to improve their workflows, innovation, and problem-solving. A key feature of successful labs is a significant level of psychological safety where staff are willing to contribute ideas, observations, and identify challenges. To learn more about how lab managers can promote psychological safety and build a culture that emphasizes vulnerability and sharing, we talked with Karolin Helbig & Minette Norman, co-authors of The Psychological Safety Playbook for Changemakers. They identify changemakers as people “who care enough to act. Leaders and individual contributors have decided that culture is their responsibility, too. The ones who refuse to give up, who know that small changes can have a far-reaching, positive ripple effect.”
Q: How does psychological safety drive innovation, performance, and growth—and what do you say to leaders who worry that psychological safety might lower accountability or performance standards?
A: When people feel safe to speak up, share incomplete ideas, challenge assumptions, and admit mistakes, organizations unlock the full brainpower of every team member, leading to innovation, performance, and growth.
Leaders who worry that psychological safety lowers accountability and performance are misunderstanding what psychological safety does: it enables honest dialogue, learning, and performance. Fear doesn’t raise standards; it increases silence. People stop flagging problems, stop asking questions, stop taking the risks that drive innovation, learning, and growth. The real question leaders should ask isn’t “Will this make people too comfortable?” It’s “What are we missing because people don’t feel safe enough to tell us?”
Q: Lab culture can feel fixed. How can lab managers drive some culture change, and why should they try?