Psychological Safety™ | Training Activity

Part 1 involves teams discussing a straightforward topic. Each member of the team has their own Briefing Card (which they cannot show to other team members, but they can share verbally). Team members are primed to behave in a way that is not conducive to harmony and good decision-making. They are briefed to be critical, not to include other members of the team, to remain in silent disapproval or to simply ignore other team members’ ideas. This contrived situation reflects the kind of behaviours that often inhibit useful interaction and lower morale.

Teams reflect on the session and what the issues were. They work through an interim Questionnaire sharing their experiences of feeling psychologically unsafe and the impact it had on them and the efficiency of their section or department.

Part 2 follows a similar structure to Part 1 but this time the Briefing Cards ensure everyone feels welcome, valued and able to say what they feel. Such an approach leads to a more productive, enjoyable, open interaction in a harmonious and welcoming atmosphere.

Overall the activity moves from the negative aspects associated with a lack of psychological safety to ways of ensuring a culture of safety and inclusion. This has great benefits for any organisation. It’s all about mutual respect and understanding.

• To identify key issues in psychological safety
• To allow teams to experience both 'safe' and 'unsafe' environments
• To show how a culture of psychological safety brings benefits in terms of improved staff performance and morale boost

1. Introduce the activity in plenary session.
2. Arrange participants into teams - up to four teams with 4-6 per team. Issue a set of Part 1 Briefing Cards, one card per team member, to each team to discuss. The cards are weighted to ensure a lack of psychological safety!
3. Teams reflect on how the discussion went and draw their own conclusions, which are discussed at a debrief.
4. Rearrange participants into new teams and issue the interim Questionnaire and allow team members to share their experiences in the workplace. How 'safe' do they feel, for example, in speaking up in a group, without fear of being ignored or belittled?
5. After a brief summing up, move on to the final part of the activity.
6. In new teams, issue Part 2 Briefing Cards, one per team member. A second discussion takes place - where the information this time is weighted in favour of positive attitudes among the teams.
7. Debrief the session using guidance and key points supplied in the Trainer's Notes.

Hard & Digital Copy

• ☑️ Hard copy pack supplied
• ☑️ PDFs supplied

Digital Copy

• ☑️ PDFs supplied

Full Contents

• Trainer’s Notes
• Part 1: Set of Briefing Cards (1.1-1.6)
• Questionnaire
• Part 2: Set of Briefing Cards (2.1-2.6)

This activity is for face-to-face or virtual classroom use. The digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 24 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.