Psychological safety at work: lessons from our AMA with Dr. Joy VerPlanck
One of the defining characteristics of modern work is that performance increasingly depends on whether people feel safe to speak up.
When "just do your job" isn't enough
In almost every session the L&D Leaders Community holds, whatever the topic, one thing keeps surfacing as part of the answer: psychological safety. So when we had the chance to bring Dr. Joy VerPlanck back for a dedicated AMA, it felt like a natural next step.
What followed was one of the most candid, practical conversations the community has had. Joy didn't stop at making the case for psychological safety. She challenged assumptions, busted myths, and gave leaders concrete tools to start building it on their teams.
The myth that gets in the way
The most common pushback Joy hears is simple: "we don't need psychological safety, we just need people to do their jobs."
Her response is just as direct. People won't do their jobs well without it. Psychological safety and accountability are not opposites. Leaders who write it off as a feel-good idea have usually misunderstood what it actually is.
So she offered a definition to work from: a shared belief that it is safe to speak up with mistakes, questions, concerns, or ideas. Nothing about complaining. Nothing about going soft on performance. When those misreadings creep in, she says, start by restating the definition.
Why leaders feel safer than their teams
Leaders naturally feel safer, because they hold power. Someone who just survived a round of layoffs sits in a very different place. That gap may never fully close, but being aware of it creates an obligation. The people who feel safe have to go first.
Joy used the image of walking into a dark cave. Someone has to step in and say, "I feel safe here, and you can too." She also pointed to the hidden obstacles that make speaking up harder, from cultural hierarchies to the quiet threats people carry into a room that leaders rarely see.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is discovering psychological safety and then announcing, "we're safe now, speak up." Joy calls this coming in with a cricket bat. It doesn't work. People usually need a slower on-ramp.
In one leadership program, half the participants were timid about or outright dreading peer engagement. Rather than forcing it, Joy introduced anonymous reflection options and removed the pressure to contribute publicly. Over time, participation grew on its own. The principle underneath it: meet people where they are, and give them more than one way to contribute.
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What we couldn't fit here
The full conversation goes much deeper. Inside the community we've captured Joy's answers to the real questions L&D leaders brought her, including:
- how to raise concerns about risk in a culture that doesn't want to hear them
- whether to frame safety as risk prevention or business value
- how to actually assess psychological safety, and how to handle office politics
- the role of authenticity, emotion, and even forgiveness when things spill over
- the one micro-action Joy challenged everyone to try this week
We also break down the case studies she used and the language reframes that can shift a culture over time.
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Read the full AMA in the community
This is the kind of conversation the L&D Leaders Community exists for: candid, practical, and grounded in real experience rather than theory. If that's the room you want to be in, we'd love to have you. The full write-up, including every question and Joy's answers, is waiting inside. Apply to join.
About Joy VerPlanck
Joy is a learning and development leader, speaker, and consultant specialising in psychological safety, team performance, and organisational culture. She has a doctorate in educational technology and a masters in organizational leadership and training. She serves as Chief Learning Officer at GrowthReady and runs her own consultancy, JVP Creative Solutions.
While Joy was leading new IP development at the NeuroLeadership Institute, she worked directly with Amy Edmondson, the Harvard Business School professor widely credited with pioneering the research on team psychological safety. She speaks internationally on topics of behavioral and learning science, including psychological safety, which she recently spoke about at Learning Technologies in London.
Joy brings a rare combination of research rigour and practical, real-world application to her work. She is known for her direct, myth-busting approach: psychological safety isn't a soft skill or a nice-to-have. It's the foundation on which high-performing, innovative, and accountable teams are built.
This article was written by Emilia Åström, Community Lead at L&D Leaders.
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