Our client operates within a complex public sector environment, where technical expertise, regulatory accountability and collaboration are critical to outcomes.

As part of a team planning day, a business unit identified the need to strengthen awareness and capability in psychological safety, particularly in response to evolving psychosocial risk obligations.

The objective was to deliver a short, high-impact (60-minute) session to:

• Build a shared understanding of psychological safety
• Clarify the distinction between psychological and psychosocial safety
• Surface current team experiences
• Introduce practical, evidence-based strategies
• Begin broader capability uplift aligned to legislative expectations

The session needed to be practical, engaging and tailored to a technical workforce, while enabling honest reflection and discussion.

What We Delivered

Holan designed and facilitated a focused, interactive session that balanced conceptual clarity with practical application.

Establishing Foundations

We established a shared understanding of psychological safety, including:

• What it is and why it matters for team performance
• The distinction between team climate and psychosocial risk obligations
• Links to performance, learning and risk management
• Key contributors to low psychological safety and common misconceptions

This positioned psychological safety as both a regulatory and operational priority.

Taking the Temperature – Team Insight

An interactive live pulse check explored participation, learning behaviour, engagement, inclusivity and responses to failure.

This provided an anonymised snapshot of current team experience, helping participants recognise differing perspectives and ground discussion in lived experience.

Practical Approaches

Drawing on Google’s Project Aristotle and organisational psychology research, we introduced practical strategies, including:

• Inviting equal participation
• Responding constructively
• Normalising learning from mistakes
• Demonstrating situational humility

These were framed to support better decision-making, risk awareness and team effectiveness.

Embedding Within the Team

A final live interaction reflection explored:

• Practical behaviours to support psychological safety
• Individual preferences for speaking up
• “My Speak-Up Conditions”

This established a shared language and initial expectations for the team moving forward.

Outcome

The session built shared understanding of psychological safety, linked it to compliance and performance, and provided practical strategies to strengthen inclusion, learning and decision-making.

This improved team effectiveness and supported more confident, risk-informed outcomes, while creating momentum for ongoing capability uplift.