The Safety Metric You’re Not Measuring
Most leaders we work with don’t think they have a psychological safety problem. Their teams seem mostly functional. People “get along”. Meetings run.
Then something happens.
A project fails in a way that multiple people saw coming and nobody said anything. A top performer leaves, and you find out in the exit interview that they’d been unhappy for two years. The negative energy of two employees who can’t get along bleeds into the larger team. A small problem becomes a large one because the person who spotted it early wasn’t sure it was safe to raise it.
Psychological safety is the shared belief that team members won’t be punished or humiliated for speaking up, asking questions, or disagreeing. Google’s Project Aristotle, which studied hundreds of teams over several years, found it was the single strongest predictor of team performance. Not skills. Not talent. Not resources.
Most organizations don’t measure it. They measure engagement, which is related but different. They track turnover, which is what happens after the damage is already done. They notice when culture “feels off,” which is usually too late.
There’s a dimension of this that’s especially relevant right now. New research finds that 83% of executives believe psychological safety improves AI adoption outcomes, but only 39% rate their organization’s psychological safety as high. Think about what that gap means in practice. If your organization is rolling out AI tools, asking people to change how they work, or navigating any kind of significant transformation, you need people who will say “I don’t understand this,” “I’m worried about what this means for my role,” and “I think there’s a better approach.” That only happens when they believe it’s safe to say it. The culture that makes change work is the same one that makes teams work. You can’t buy one without building the other.
Organizations that navigate complexity well tend to have cultures where people feel safe enough to be honest. Not comfortable. Safe. There’s a difference, and it matters.
Laura Pickett, MHA, CPXP, is the Founder and Principal of Thrive Lab. With two decades of leadership experience across healthcare, philanthropy, and professional sports, she partners with executives and teams to bring clarity to complexity, strengthen culture, and accelerate meaningful progress. Known for blending strategic vision with a roll-up-your-sleeves approach, Laura helps organizations align around what matters most and move with purpose.
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