As the concept of psychological safety has become popularised, some of the key elements risk being overlooked. Some inaccurately portray psychologically safe cultures as soft on performance, with low standards, consensus decision making and niceness at all costs leading to risks being ignored.

This challenges how we think about failure. We are often torn between two failure cultures - an “avoid failure at all costs” culture where mistakes are career ending, and a “fail fast/fail forward” culture where mistakes are celebrated. Instead, we should focus on how we fail well - differentiating between when it’s safe to fail and how we avoid mistakes when they can lead to catastrophic outcomes.

In this 60-minute webinar Andrew Beveridge from Leadership Today explores the origins of psychological safety, the implications for failure and belonging, and how it applies in your work today. We discuss why the context of our work matters, three different types of failure, and the relationship between psychological safety and standards.