Culture First: Why Psychological Safety is the Key to Thriving Teams
How about a dose of preventative medicine?
Would you rather treat a problem early - or wait until it becomes a crisis?
In healthcare, we understand the value of early detection. We go for check-ups, monitor our wellbeing, and take action before symptoms escalate into serious conditions. The same principle applies to workplace culture.
Too often, organisations wait until tensions boil over or a crisis unfolds before taking action. By then, the damage is done - trust is eroded, morale is low, and productivity has taken a hit.
So, what’s the alternative?
Culture reviews: Your organisational check-up
Many workplace tools are retrospective in nature. Exit interviews, formal complaint processes, and performance reviews can all provide valuable insights – but they often reflect what’s already happened, rather than what’s emerging beneath the surface.
Culture reviews, on the other hand, are proactive. They’re like a health check for your organisation. They’re designed to uncover early warning signs, identify strengths, and provide a roadmap for improvement before issues escalate.
They’re not about blame. They’re about understanding. And they’re one of the most powerful tools we have to build psychologically safe, high-performing workplaces.
A culture review is a structured process that uses both detailed observations and measurable data to understand how things are within an organisation. This typically involves interviews, workshops or focus groups and staff surveys to gather honest feedback across the organisation.
These are used to look at patterns in behaviour, communication and leadership styles and alignment with values. The aim is to reveal the underlying patterns shaping your workplace culture.
To find out what’s working, what’s not and where any opportunities for change or improvement lie. This gives a clear and actionable blueprint that helps make informed decisions and build a culture where people and performance can thrive.
What psychological safety really looks like
Psychological safety isn’t about being “nice.” It’s about being real.
It’s about creating an environment where everyone on the team feels comfortable sharing ideas, speaking up, asking questions, giving feedback and owning mistakes, without the fear of embarrassment, punishment or exclusion. It unlocks innovation, collaboration, trust and learning within the team.
But it’s fragile. And it can be undermined in a moment.
A moment of perspective
I once sat in a strategy meeting where a senior leader wasn’t getting their way. As others asked questions and sought clarity, their patience quickly wore thin. They began shaking their head, rolling their eyes, and mocking those who challenged them.
The room grew tense. People grew defensive and stopped contributing. The energy shifted.
After the meeting, I found the courage to speak to the leader privately. I shared how their behaviour made me uncomfortable, how it created tension, and how it diminished their credibility and mana in my eyes.
They didn’t take the feedback well. They dismissed it. They continued to mock those who had disagreed or challenged them. And they didn’t change.
The result? Although the decision was made to progress the strategy, it wasn’t fully endorsed by the group nor accepted by staff members and stakeholders. Even with determination and a change in tactics, it couldn’t be implemented. The opportunity was lost - not because the plan was flawed, but because the environment wasn’t safe enough for honest dialogue when it had been needed.
I’d seen firsthand what happens when a workplace isn’t psychologically safe. So, what did I do? I moved on to a place where I could help business thrive, where I could support, lead, and coach safely, and demonstrate the behaviours and values that make workplaces somewhere everyone can contribute positively.
So, what does this mean?
You are likely to have heard the phrase attributed to Peter Drucker “Culture eats strategy for lunch”. Yes, it’s well-worn, but still very true. In fact, culture may also eat strategy for breakfast and dinner!
The idea is, no matter how fantastic your grand plan is, it will fail if you don’t have a workplace environment, a culture, that supports it. No matter how good the strategy is, if those leading or implementing it don’t foster an appropriate culture, it will misfire and fall short.
Good culture isn’t about beers on Friday, free fruit on a Wednesday or a checklist of perks and policies. It’s how people think and feel about work and how they behave, especially when it gets tough. It’s about how they:
Respond to challenges.
Treat each other.
Navigate conflict.
Make decisions under pressure.
Value collaboration.
Accept different perspectives.
Support each other when things go wrong.
Why this matters
When people don’t feel safe to speak up, they disengage. They withhold ideas. They avoid risk. And as I did, they leave. But when psychological safety is present, something powerful happens:
People challenge ideas without challenging each other.
Feedback flows freely.
Mistakes become learning opportunities.
Teams become more resilient, collaborative and connected.
This leads to measurable benefits for the business - where retention, performance and productivity improve and conflict is reduced.
Leading indicators, not lagging ones
Culture reviews give you a real-time view of what’s happening beneath the surface. They help you:
Understand how people are really feeling.
Identify patterns of behaviour that may be causing harm.
Discover what’s working well and what’s not.
Build a culture where people feel seen, heard and valued.
It’s not just about fixing problems. It’s about creating the conditions where problems are less likely to arise in the first place.
What you can do today
Start with a culture review. Get a clear, evidence-based picture of your workplace.
Invest in leadership coaching to build trust and communication skills.
Model psychological safety. Be the person who listens, who invites feedback, who makes it safe to speak up.
Final thoughts
Culture is happening whether you shape it or not. The question is - are you leading it or leaving it to chance?
If you’re ready to take a proactive approach to workplace culture, I’d love to help. Get in touch to talk about how a culture review could support your team to thrive.
Della Henderson, Principal Consultant, Ruru Workplace Solutions