Season finale

In this episode, Kate and Maddie explore psychological safety: what it actually means, why most people get it wrong, and the specific leadership behaviours that create it.

Drawing on Amy Edmondson's book The Fearless Organisation, they make the case that psychological safety is not about comfort, being nice, or avoiding conflict. It is the belief that your work environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. And it lives at team level, which means any leader can create it, regardless of what the wider organisation is doing.

What you'll hear in this episode:

Why psychological safety is not the same as comfort or harmony, and why falsely harmonious teams can have very low safety.

The neuroscience behind fear: what actually happens in your brain when you do not feel safe, and why even brilliant, experienced people will stay silent.

How Google's Project Aristotle found psychological safety to be the single biggest factor in high-performing teams, and why Edmondson describes it as "taking the brakes off."

The real cost of not having it, from the Volkswagen emissions scandal to the Pan Am disaster, and what those examples reveal about the weight of hierarchy.

Edmondson's three-part framework for building psychological safety as a leader:

1. Set the stage. Frame the work in a way that normalises failure, makes clear that input is needed, and gives people permission to speak honestly. Kate shares how reframing a feedback question from "what could Kate do better?" to "what advice do you have for Kate?" changed everything she got back.

2. Invite participation. Ask questions you genuinely do not know the answer to. Build structures that make contribution normal, from brain trusts (Pixar) to failure-sharing lunches.

3. Respond productively. Appreciate honesty even when the news is bad. Reward effort and learning, not just success. And yes, still hold people accountable when behaviour crosses a clear line: dealing with genuine violations actually increases safety for everyone else.

Practical takeaways for leaders:

Name your own part in what went wrong before asking others to do the same.

Try an aspirational question in your next team meeting. Rather than asking what has gone wrong, ask: "What is stopping this being as good as we want it to be?" or "What am I not seeing here?"

Use the "what's your 2%?" prompt to make shared accountability feel manageable. Everyone can admit 2%.

Experiment with the pre-mortem: assume the project has failed, then explore why. It surfaces risks early, and it is a gift for natural catastrophisers.

Ask directly: "What is one thing I could do to help the team feel safer taking risks?"

Referenced in this episode:

The Fearless Organisation by Amy Edmondson

Google's Project Aristotle

Pixar's Brain Trust

Patrick Lencioni on vulnerability-based trust

Nancy Kline's Time to Think

Carol Dweck's growth mindset research

Wells Fargo and the Volkswagen emissions scandal as case studies in the cost of low safety

A note from Kate and Maddie:

This is the last episode before a summer break. Season three launches in September and will focus entirely on leadership. If you have taken something from this series, we would love to hear from you: hello@acuriousspacepodcast.com

About the Hosts

Kate Nicholroy is a systemic team coach and facilitator working with senior leadership teams across the UK to help them think and work better together. She is founder of the Good Ideas Agency (www.goodideasagency.com) and holds executive coaching accreditations with the EMCC and ICF.

Maddie Fox is a senior HR leader and executive coach working with individuals, teams and organisations who want to develop authentic, conscious leadership skills, navigate challenging change and build foundations to become more resilient. She is the founder of MadFox Group (www.madfoxgroup.com).

Produced by Tim Fox. Music by Richard Flindell.

Join us next time as we enter a curious space.

In this episode of A Curious Space, Kate and Maddy open up the Culture Clinic for the first time, responding to a letter from a listener we are calling Rowan. Rowan runs a business where two years of deliberate culture-building is being undermined by one person: a commercial director who brings in more revenue than anyone else and makes working life harder for almost everyone around them.

The question Rowan is sitting with is one that will be familiar to many leaders: can I afford to lose this person? Kate and Maddy turn that question around. Have you properly costed what it is to keep them?

The tension between visible and invisible costs in organisations, and why the financial impact of difficult behaviour rarely makes it onto a balance sheet.

Research by Pearson and Porath (2005) on workplace incivility, including findings that 50% of people lose significant work time managing around a difficult colleague, 70% vent outside the organisation, and one in eight eventually leave.

Why tolerating behaviour sends a louder signal than any values statement.

How to approach a genuinely different kind of conversation with a high performer whose behaviour is causing damage, one that is curious about what is driving it rather than just addressing the symptom.

The role of reward structures and performance expectations in either reinforcing or shifting the problem.

What support for this kind of conversation can look like, including for the leader having it.

Pearson, C. and Porath, C. (2005). On the nature, consequences and remedies of workplace incivility: No time for "nice"? Think again. Academy of Management Perspectives, 19(1), 7-18.

About the hosts

Kate Nicholroy is a systemic team coach and facilitator working with senior leadership teams across the UK to help them think and work better together. She is founder of the Good Ideas Agency (www.goodideasagency.com) and holds executive coaching accreditations with the EMCC and ICF.

Maddie Fox is a senior HR leader and executive coach working with individuals, teams and organisations, who want to develop authentic, conscious leadership skills, navigate challenging change and build foundations to become more resilient. She is the founder of MadFox Group (www.madfoxgroup.com).

Find all episodes of A Curious Space at www.acuriousspacepodcast.com.

Get in touch with a cultural conundrum, a question, or to find out how Kate and Maddy can support your organisation: hello@acuriousspacepodcast.com.

A Curious Space is produced by Tim Fox with music by Richard Flindell.