27 January 2025

The CEO’s Perspective: What’s Slowing Your Organisation Down?

In the C-suite, the stakes couldn’t be higher. You’re responsible for steering your organisation toward growth and innovation, yet without psychological safety, your teams are hesitant to take risks, share bold ideas, or engage in critical conversations. The result? Missed opportunities, slower progress, and a culture of compliance rather than creativity. These aren’t isolated HR issues—they’re leadership challenges with direct implications for your bottom line.

Imagine the cost:

  • Innovation stalls as employees stick to safe, predictable ideas.
  • Engagement plummets as employees feel unheard and undervalued.
  • Decisions slow down due to fear of challenging assumptions.

Turnover increases, as top talent seeks workplaces where they feel empowered to contribute.

Psychological Safety

The Root Cause: Psychological Safety

While these symptoms are visible, their root cause is often overlooked: a lack of psychological safety.

What is Psychological Safety? In simple terms, it’s the ability for employees to speak up, take risks, and challenge assumptions without fear of negative consequences. It’s the silent engine that drives innovation, collaboration, and adaptability.

When psychological safety is missing, employees are less likely to:

  • Offer new ideas or solutions.
  • Raise concerns or flag risks.
  • Embrace change and take ownership of initiatives.

The business impact is clear: Without psychological safety, organisations face declining innovation, slower response to market changes, and increased turnover—all of which undermine growth and profitability.

The Cost of Ignoring Psychological Safety

The numbers don’t lie:

The message is clear: Addressing psychological safety isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a business imperative.

The Solution: Building Psychological Safety

At Beliminal, we specialise in fostering psychological safety through proven strategies that align with Enterprise Agility Patterns. Here’s how we help organisations address this tension:

1. Create Transparency in Workflow

Making work visible is one of the most effective ways to build trust. Transparency fosters accountability and reduces the perception of hidden agendas.

  • Example: We worked with a client in the financial services industry to implement a visual management system across teams. This allowed everyone to see the progress of initiatives, making it easier to identify bottlenecks and celebrate achievements. The result? A measurable increase in cross-team collaboration and trust.

2. Freedom to Fail

We emphasise creating environments where failure is a vital part of the learning process. This pattern advocates removing the stigma attached to failure and encouraging calculated risks.

  • Example: At a telecoms company, we guided leadership to adopt small, safe-to-fail experiments. Teams were encouraged to run pilots on new ideas with clear boundaries for learning. Leaders celebrated both the successes and the lessons from failures, shifting the culture to one of continuous improvement.

3. Participatory Change

Change imposed from the top rarely sticks. Participatory change involves engaging employees at all levels in shaping and implementing new ways of working.

  • Example: We facilitated workshops for a global retail client where employees co-created solutions to long-standing challenges. This approach not only improved outcomes but also increased buy-in and ownership.

4. Leaders as Role Models

Leadership sets the tone for psychological safety. When leaders model vulnerability, openness, and a willingness to learn, it signals to employees that it’s safe to do the same.

  • Example: At a healthcare organisation, we coached senior leaders to share their learning journeys and publicly acknowledge their mistakes. This created a ripple effect of openness throughout the company.

5. Regular Retrospectives

Reflection is a powerful tool for fostering psychological safety. Retrospectives provide structured opportunities for teams to share what’s working, what’s not, and how to improve together.

  • Example: At a tech startup, we implemented a cadence of retrospectives focused not just on tasks but on team dynamics. Over time, this practice helped teams address interpersonal issues, leading to stronger collaboration and higher engagement.

6. Build Safety with Check-In Questions

Check-in questions are a simple but powerful tool to foster psychological safety. Every time you ask one, they create space for vulnerability and connection, helping teams build trust over time.

Example: For one of our clients, we introduced check-in questions as a routine practice at the start of meetings. Questions like, “What’s on your mind today?” or “What’s one thing you need support with?” helped surface unspoken concerns, align expectations, and create a culture of openness. The result was stronger team cohesion and more effective collaboration.

The Business Outcomes

By embedding psychological safety into your culture, you unlock:

  • Higher Engagement: Employees bring their full creativity and energy to work.
  • Increased Innovation: Teams are empowered to experiment and think outside the box.
  • Faster Adaptation: Agility becomes a strength, enabling quicker responses to market shifts.
  • Improved Retention: A safe and supportive culture keeps top talent engaged.

Your Next Steps

Psychological safety doesn’t happen by accident. It requires intentional leadership, tailored strategies, and a commitment to continuous improvement. At Beliminal, we partner with organisations to address this critical tension and unlock the full potential of their teams.

Are you ready to address the root cause of stagnation and create a culture of safety, innovation, and growth? Let’s start a conversation about building psychological safety—and driving lasting success for your business.

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If you would like support in building high-performing teams consider our Consulting Services, we can put together a programme for team development designed specifically for your teams and organisation.  Reach out today to discuss any support that you need.

About The Author:

Mark Summers believes that happiness always comes first. As a leading figure in the growth of Agile coaching, experience has taught him that a team that’s having fun will perform far better. For Mark, enjoyment isn’t an optional extra – that’s where businesses go wrong. He believes that the organisation of the future will be driven by self-organising, self-motivated teams and facilitated by manager-coaches, rather than led by traditional dictator-managers. Mark sees his work – coaching teams, leadership and organisations in their move to agility – as part of a bigger shift in society. Uncompromisingly honest with himself, energising and thought-provoking as a coach, Mark is 100% committed to helping people succeed by becoming happier, more open and more autonomous as individuals and as teams.
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