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 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.
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.
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.