Blog

By Jade Garratt In our experience, the most effective lever for increasing psychological safety within a team is flattening the power gradient – the gap between those with the most power and those with the least. In practice, this usually means two things: Reducing the power held or overtly displayed by the most powerful individuals. Increasing...

The Speaking up Myth By Jade Garratt In the world of psychological safety, we focus a lot, maybe even too much, on the speaking up side of the equation. How do we make sure people speak up with their ideas, questions, concerns and mistakes? But this puts the onus on others to do the speaking up,...

Ikigai Strategy has a reputation for being serious, complex, and difficult, at least if you believe what you see on LinkedIn or read online. But it doesn’t have to be. At the simplest level, strategy is making decisions. It’s about considering our long-term or overall aim, then planning our work and actions towards that. And that...

Addressing Power through “Flattening” Organisations Steep power gradients are one of the most significant factors that contribute to reducing psychological safety. These steep differentials in perceived power have contributed to many disasters including the Tenerife Airport disaster in 1977, Chernobyl, the Challenger Space Shuttle, and numerous others. This is why reducing power gradients is number 1...

Work doesn’t have to suck By Jade Garratt The start of a new year seems like a good time to reflect on how work feels, and how we feel about work. For too many of us, going to work isn’t a wholly positive experience. A large scale study in the UK found that in terms of...

Sometimes I Muck Up After lots of you asked for “Safe For Work” versions of our “Sometimes I F*ck Up” stickers, we’ve created these “Sometimes I Muck Up” stickers available in our online shop! Delivering Effective Feedback There are still a few spaces available on our fantastic Delivering Effective Feedback online workshop on January 9th, 2025. It’s scheduled for...

By Jade Garratt How do you feel when you hear the words “You have a body“? And how do you feel when you hear it in a work context?  You might find it confusing – a kind of “well, obviously”, or think it’s a bit of an odd thing to say. And that’s fair. Yet it’s one...

Blametropism By Tom Geraghty, edited by Jade Garratt It’s a common fallacy that psychological safety means having a “blameless” culture. Just like so many misconceptions around psychological safety, that’s not actually the case. Sometimes we can’t avoid blame and, on some occasions, it might even be appropriate and/or useful. For example, if an employee deliberately steals...

The Organisational Fabric of Psychological Safety (AKA psychological safety is more than just a team phenomenon) By Tom Geraghty When we talk about psychological safety, the definition we usually use is something along the lines of “a shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.” That definition is rooted in the original research context...

Colution (noun)A solution that emerges through genuine collaboration, where all parties contribute ideas, insights, and perspectives to co-create an outcome that none could have achieved alone. Usage Examples in Sentences “The team didn’t just reach a compromise—they built a true colution, integrating everyone’s priorities into a single, creative outcome.” “In our workshops, we aim for colutions...