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?
A: Culture is built through our repeated behaviors, and it can feel fixed until someone decides to change it. The moment we choose to act differently, we can influence the culture.
The biggest hurdle is often that we are unaware of our ability to influence the culture through small shifts. For example, how do we respond to dissenting viewpoints? How do we react when we feel defensive? How do we handle mistakes and failures? These small moments can have a profound impact on your lab culture.
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Q: Many leaders worry that showing vulnerability will undermine their authority. How can courageous communication strengthen credibility and influence?
A: Anyone leading teams or driving change is constantly balancing competence with vulnerability. Courageous communication starts with one deceptively simple question: “What am I missing?” That question signals confidence, not weakness. It tells your team that you value their perspectives over your own need to be right. Leaders who ask this question consistently hear from people who rarely spoke up before, people with ideas that changed decisions and strategies. Authority isn’t diminished by humility. It’s strengthened by it. The most credible leaders combine confidence with humility and strength with curiosity.
Q: Why is managing our reactions one of the most powerful and most difficult leadership disciplines?
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A: We all have strong emotions, and we all get defensive. There’s no shame in getting defensive. Our brains are doing what they are designed to do: keep us safe and alive. The difficulty is that leadership happens in exactly those moments. The practice is learning to hit the pause button by noticing the physical signs of defensiveness rising before acting on it. That brief pause is where choice lives. Leaders who practice this shift from automatic reaction to deliberate response unlock genuine empathy, curiosity, and collaboration.
Q: How can leaders respond to mistakes in a way that strengthens psychological safety rather than erodes it?
A: The way a leader responds to mistakes sets the tone for every mistake that follows. Team members are watching closely, and they calibrate how much risk they’re willing to take based on what they witness. Leaders who respond to failure with curiosity rather than blame create something rare: a team that learns together. In innovative lab environments, the goal isn’t to avoid every mistake. It’s to surface problems early and learn quickly. That means asking “What can we learn from this?” instead of “Who’s to blame for this?” When leaders share their own missteps and learnings from them, they send a message to their team members that failures are learning opportunities rather than something to be feared.
Q: What’s one practical shift leaders can make immediately to make meetings more inclusive and psychologically safe?
A: Appoint an inclusion booster. It’s a simple role you can introduce in your very next meeting: a rotating facilitator whose job is to ensure every voice gets heard. They notice who’s dominating, who’s quiet, and gently rebalance the conversation: “Let's hear from someone we haven't heard from yet.” The inclusion booster role is also eye-opening to play. Suddenly, you become aware of team dynamics you’ve never noticed before.
Q: When psychological safety has been damaged, what does it take to deliberately restore it?
A: Psychological safety is slow to build and quick to break. Rebuilding psychological safety requires more than an apology; it requires sustained, visible effort over time.
The process moves through four steps:
- Recognition: Naming the breach and acknowledging its impact without justification.
- Responsibility: Owning the harm fully, focusing on impact rather than intent.
- Remedy: Recommitting through consistent, observable behavior, not just words.
- Relationship rebuilding: Creating ongoing space for honest conversation about what happened and how to move forward.
There's no shortcut. Declaring “this is a safe space” means nothing. People believe it’s safe when they have seen consistent proof that when they speak up, ask a question, make a mistake, or offer a divergent viewpoint, they will not be embarrassed, marginalized, or punished.
Q: Culture change can feel overwhelming. What’s the best starting point for leaders to cultivate psychological safety in their teams?
A: Start with one simple question: “What am I missing?” Ask this question in your next meeting or conversation and truly mean it. Then build from there. Listen to the answers without interrupting. Notice your defensive reactions and pause before responding. When someone takes a risk, and it doesn’t work out, get curious instead of critical. Make sure everyone in your team has a chance to share their ideas. Each of those is a small move. None requires a culture initiative, an executive title, or a budget. Psychological safety isn’t built in a single courageous act. It’s built into countless, everyday interactions. Start small. Start today.
