psychological safety in the workplace
Build the conditions that allow teams to think clearly, speak up and perform under pressure.
Your team knows things you need to know, but they’re not telling you.
The 90-minute workshop that gives teams a shared foundation for surfacing problems early, challenging flawed thinking, and maintaining performance when pressure hits.
Your team has the expertise. But when stakes are high, people hold back critical information. They don’t flag risks early. They don’t challenge assumptions. They wait too long to say what needs saying.
That silence shows up as blown deadlines, projects that need rework, and problems discovered when they’re three times more expensive to fix.
This 90-minute Foundations workshop gives your team the baseline communication skills and shared language they need to start addressing these patterns immediately.
For organisations ready to embed these practices deeper, we offer advanced leadership training that builds on this foundation.
THE BUSINESS COST OF SILENCE
These Patterns Are Costing You Money
Late Risk Flags
Your team sees the problem in week 2 but doesn’t mention it until week 6. By then, you’re paying for rush fixes, scope changes, and emergency resources instead of simple course corrections.
Decisions That Don’t Get Challenged
People nod along in meetings even when they see flaws in the plan. Nobody tests the assumptions. Six weeks later, you’re unpicking work that could have been caught early with one good question.
Talent Walking Out the Door
Your strongest performers tried to raise concerns. They felt shut down. Now they’re interviewing elsewhere, and you’re about to lose the people who actually see problems coming.
Escalations That Should Never Reach You
Small tensions between team members land on your desk because people won’t address friction directly. You’re spending leadership time mediating issues that should resolve themselves at team level.
The issue isn’t feelings, it’s data quality.
When people can’t speak up, you’re making decisions based on incomplete information. The risks your team sees don’t reach you until they’re expensive. The flaws in your plans don’t get tested until you’ve already committed resources.
WHAT THIS WORKSHOP BUILDS
Psychological Safety Foundations creates the baseline that high-performing teams rely on.
After this 90-minute workshop, your team will leave with:
- A shared understanding of what psychological safety actually is (and isn’t)
- A common language for naming what’s happening when communication breaks down
- Practical frameworks they can start using immediately
- Clear expectations about how to raise concerns, give feedback, and disagree productively
Think of this as establishing the foundation. For teams and leaders ready to go deeper, we offer an advanced leadership program that builds on these baseline skills and ensures consistent implementation across your organisation.
WHAT YOUR TEAM WILL LEARN
How to recognise when fear is corrupting information quality
Most teams don’t realise they’re self-censoring. We teach you to catch the early signs, people softening messages, avoiding certain topics, waiting for perfect proof before speaking up, before those patterns become expensive problems.
How to raise concerns without creating drama
There’s a difference between “I see a risk we need to address” and “this won’t work.” Your team learns the language that surfaces problems early while keeping momentum and relationships intact.
How to challenge decisions that need testing
Scaling businesses need people who can disagree, question assumptions, and push back on flawed thinking. We teach teams how to do that without triggering defensiveness or stalling progress.
How to receive challenge without shutting people down
When someone raises a concern, your response determines whether they’ll speak up next time. We teach practical skills for listening in ways that keep critical information flowing instead of making people regret opening their mouths.
How to give feedback that actually improves performance
Most feedback either gets ignored (too soft) or damages relationships (too harsh). Your team learns a simple framework that makes feedback direct enough to be useful and delivered in a way people can actually hear and act on.
How to use disagreement to make better decisions
High-performing teams have tension in them. Not drama, but productive disagreement that tests ideas and improves outcomes. We teach teams how to distinguish the useful kind from the destructive kind and use it effectively.
WHAT CHANGES AFTER THE WORKSHOP
Teams Start with a Shared Foundation
Everyone has the same language for what’s happening, the same frameworks for addressing it, and the same understanding of what psychological safety means in practice.
You’ll See Immediate Behaviour Shifts
People start raising concerns earlier. Questions get asked in meetings instead of hallway conversations afterwards. Feedback gets given more directly and received less defensively.
The Real Work Happens Next
This workshop creates awareness and introduces tools. Embedding these practices deeply and making them consistent under real pressure takes ongoing leadership work. That’s where our advanced leadership program comes in.
Problems Get Flagged When They’re Still Manageable
Teams begin raising concerns in week 2 instead of week 6, giving you time to adjust course instead of paying for emergency fixes and rework.
Decisions Start Getting Tested
People challenge assumptions and question risks out loud instead of staying quiet and hoping someone else will speak up first.
Less Time Managing Interpersonal Issues
Small tensions start getting handled directly between colleagues instead of escalating through managers or landing in HR.
The Foundation for Stronger Accountability
When teams understand what safety looks like, they can start taking ownership of problems instead of protecting themselves and pointing fingers.
THIS ISN’T WELLNESS TRAINING. IT’S FOUNDATIONAL TEAM CAPABILITY.
Psychological safety isn’t about being nice or making people comfortable.
It’s about maintaining information quality under pressure.
When teams can’t speak up, you get:
- Risks hidden until they’re expensive
- Decisions based on incomplete information
- Problems discovered too late to fix cheaply
- Talent leaving because they don’t feel heard
When teams can speak up, you get:
- Early warnings while course corrections are still easy
- Decisions tested and improved before you commit resources
- Problems caught and solved before they escalate
- People who stay because they can contribute meaningfully
This workshop establishes the baseline. Our leadership program ensures it sticks.
HOW IT WORKS
Duration: 90 minutes
Designed to fit real work schedules and deliver immediate value.
Format: Interactive workshop with real scenarios and practice
This isn’t a lecture. Teams work through actual situations and leave with tools they use immediately.
Delivery: Virtual or in-person
Virtual workshops are highly interactive and work well for remote and hybrid teams. Most clients choose virtual delivery.
What Teams Get:
- Practical frameworks for raising concerns, giving feedback, and challenging ideas
- A shared communication language the whole team uses
- Immediate tools for handling tension and disagreement
- Clear understanding of what breaks safety and what builds it
What Happens After:
- Teams have a foundation to build on
- Leaders can reference shared frameworks in real-time
- For sustained implementation, we offer an advanced leadership program.
WHO THIS WORKSHOP SERVES
This foundation works best for:
Teams navigating growth, change and pressure
- Scaling businesses where informal communication no longer works
- Fast-moving teams where the cost of delays is high
- Cross-functional teams where silos create communication gaps
Teams with the skills but struggling with communication
- Technical experts who know their work but hold back in meetings
- Capable people who stay quiet even when they see problems
- Teams that avoid tension until it escalates
Leadership teams making high-stakes decisions
- Where one unchallenged assumption can cost hundreds of thousands
- Where people need to disagree productively without damaging relationships
- Where you need the truth early, not the filtered version
Organisations investing in performance, not fixing crises
- High-performing teams that want to stay high-performing
- Leaders who build capability before problems appear
- Businesses that know prevention is cheaper than firefighting
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is 90 minutes really enough to make a difference?
This workshop establishes a foundation and introduces practical tools teams can use immediately. You’ll see behaviour shifts, people raising concerns earlier, asking questions in meetings instead of afterwards. But embedding these practices deeply across your organisation requires ongoing leadership work. That’s why many clients start here and continue with our advanced programs.
Is this just another team-building session?
No. This is capability building. We focus on the specific communication behaviours that cause delays, poor decisions, and preventable escalations. Teams leave with practical frameworks they reference the next day, not vague concepts about trust.
What if our team is remote or hybrid?
The virtual format is highly interactive and works well for distributed teams. Most of our clients choose virtual delivery.
Can we customise the content?
Yes. The core framework stays consistent because it’s based on research that works. But we adjust examples and scenarios to reflect your industry, team dynamics, or specific challenges.
Is this only for teams with major problems?
No. The best time to build psychological safety is before you have a crisis. High-performing teams use this to maintain their edge and prevent the patterns that cause breakdowns. Think of it as preventive maintenance for team performance.
How is this different from mental health or wellness training?
This isn’t about mental health. It’s about business performance. We’re addressing the communication breakdowns that cost you money like late escalations, poor decisions, and preventable mistakes. The outcome is better information quality and faster problem-solving, not better feelings.
What’s the difference between this and your leadership programs?
Foundations creates a shared baseline across the team, common language, basic frameworks, immediate tools. Our leadership programs go deeper on implementation, handling resistance, modelling safety under pressure, and embedding practices consistently across the organisation. Most clients start with Foundations, then continue with leadership work.
Will this actually change anything or just create awareness?
Teams leave with specific tools they use immediately. You’ll see changes in how people communicate in meetings, how early concerns are raised, and how feedback is given and received. This is practical skill-building that creates a foundation for sustained change.
BUILD THE FOUNDATION YOUR TEAM NEEDS TO PERFORM UNDER PRESSURE
Your team knows things you need to know. They see risks you need to see. They have concerns that could save you time and money.
This 90-minute workshop gives them the baseline skills and shared language to start surfacing those concerns early, before they become expensive problems.
For enquiries or bookings:
Contact Ann directly:
📞 078 458 5338
✉️ ann@flagacademy.co.za
The most expensive risk in your business isn’t in your spreadsheet, it’s in what your team knows but won’t say.