Managing a psychologically safe workplace

This week’s action: In one conversation or meeting, practice being a host instead of a hero.

Psychological safety — the belief that you won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up with your ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes — is often framed as a workplace well-being concept. But it also shapes how teams collaborate and how organizations build trust with their communities.

Psychological safety within the newsroom can encourage people to ask for help, surface new ideas or challenge assumptions with honesty and clarity.

Quick reflection: Think about your last team conversation: Who spoke most easily, and who stayed quiet?

Psychological safety might feel like a ‘nice to have’ — something that gets buried under the weight of breaking news, shrinking budgets and urgent decisions. But what if the absence of that safety is silently stalling your best ideas and alienating your next generation of leaders?

A new kind of listening to bridge divides

A psychologically safe workplace is essential for building trust, encouraging open dialogue and repairing past harms. It isn’t a warm-and-fuzzy add-on — it starts with how we lead, listen and learn. One way we build psychological safety is to rethink how we show up in conversations and decision-making.

You have experienced the downside of “hero leadership” if you’ve ever:

• Felt like the future of journalism sits on your shoulders
• Sat through a meeting where decisions were made before the discussion started
• Seen a colleague’s ideas dismissed until a senior leader repeated them

When it comes to transforming our news operations and journalism, we have to show up as host leaders by embracing complexity and:

• Listening differently
• Inviting perspective
• Paying attention to team dynamics
• Responding thoughtfully when people feel dismissed, uncertain or unheard

Try this

Start here (5 minutes): The next time someone shares an idea, respond like a trampoline — bounce their idea back with curiosity: “Tell me more. What would it look like if we tried it?” Notice how the conversation changes when your first response is curiosity instead of evaluation.

According to organizational behavioral scientist Amy Edmondson of Harvard, psychological safety grows when leaders consistently model openness, curiosity and learning.

Here are two complementary micro practices in psychological safety to try this week — because starting small is always better than never starting at all:

• Ask your team: “Where do we need more hosts than heroes?”
• Then choose one meeting: Your design goal is simple: everyone leaves feeling heard.

Dig deeper

Here are additional resources and frameworks to build a psychologically safe workplace.

• SCARF framework developed by neuroscientist David Rock
• Need to Know series: Leading teams with equity.
• Overcoming assumptions: How to facilitate successful multi-generational collaboration
• Leadership in the Age of Complexity: From hero to host by Margaret Wheatley and Debbie Frieze
• How to have psychologically safe conversations about difficult topics (with guide), by LaTonya Wilkins of Change Coaches

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