How Can You Measure Your Team’s Psychological Safety?

The most effective teams aren’t defined by talent, but by how well they work together. In environments with high levels of trust between team members - where they feel safe to speak up, challenge ideas, and learn from failure - organizations unlock their teams' highest potential. This concept is known as psychological safety.

This article introduces the Fearless Organizational Scan - a science-based tool based on the groundbreaking work of Harvard’s Amy C. Edmondson designed to help leaders assess the psychological safety levels in their teams and identify opportunities for improving it. The tool asks seven questions across four domains: Inclusion and Diversity, Willingness to Help, Attitude to Risk and Failure, and Open Conversation.

1. Inclusion and Diversity

The first domain reflects the experience of belonging. When inclusion is present, people feel respected, welcomed, and safe to express their identity and perspective. They don’t spend energy trying to fit in—they spend it contributing meaningfully.

As Verna Myers puts it, “Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.” The highest-performing teams go beyond representation. They intentionally build rituals and norms that make inclusion felt in everyday interactions.

The Culture Map by Erin Meyer is a powerful tool for helping teams understand how cultural differences shape workplace behaviors—from communication and feedback to perceptions of time and decision-making. It offers a practical framework for navigating culturally diverse teams.

2. Willingness to Help

Teams that are psychologically safe display a consistent, proactive willingness to help. Asking for support is not perceived as a sign of weakness but as an understanding of the diverse expertise of the team and the importance of team collaboration.

The Secrets of Great Teamwork emphasizes that effective teams often rely on informal support systems that aren't visible on organizational charts but are critical to performance. As one team lead shared: “In our group, no one lets anyone fail alone.” This kind of informal reliability is invisible on organizational charts, but is essential in fuelling performance.

To deepen this dynamic, leaders can build stronger feedback loops through active listening practices.

Active listening models empathy and care - When team members feel truly heard, they’re more likely to support one another.

3. Attitude to Risk and Failure

The third domain centers on learning. Teams with psychological safety don’t avoid failure—they normalize it, learn from it, and move forward. This can sound like “I am comfortable making mistakes without fear of judgment.” In these environments, mistakes are seen as opportunities for growth.

As Amy Edmondson notes, “The best learning happens when there’s enough safety to take risks and enough accountability to learn from failure.” Teams that thrive in uncertainty reflect regularly, share openly, and recover faster.

Check out our worksheet for running a retrospective - a structured way to collectively debrief on a team’s ways of working and find quick fixes for improving team collaboration. When done consistently, team members feel more and more safe to bring up tough issues and approach them with a growth-oriented mindset instead of the intention of pointing fingers.

4. Open Conversation

The fourth domain reflects a team’s ability to speak up openly and authentically. When open conversation is present, team members feel safe to raise concerns, challenge ideas respectfully, and give or receive feedback. There’s a shared belief that “my contributions are valid, and I can share new ideas without fear of judgment or retaliation.”

To foster this environment, leaders can go beyond encouraging openness by designing structured moments for it to happen, such as idea generation workshops or innovation sprints. These intentional practices not only invite diverse perspectives but also normalize dialogue as part of how the team works and innovates.

Download our brochure to learn more about how we can help leaders and organizations embed psychological safety into leadership practices, team dynamics, and organizational culture.

Cosmic Centaurs is the only certified provider of the Fearless Organization Scan and the official Arabic language partner for this globally recognized tool in the MENA region.