12 Psychological Safety Activities for Employees in the Workplace

Teams don’t develop psychological safety simply because managers tell people to “speak up.” It grows through repeated positive experiences. The activities below help employees practice open communication, trust, constructive feedback, and collaboration in a safe environment.

Whether you’re running a workshop, facilitating a team-building session, or leading a team meeting, these free psychological safety activities can help employees become more comfortable asking questions, offering suggestions, giving feedback, and discussing mistakes without worrying about blame or criticism.

A psychologically safe workplace is one where employees know they can speak honestly, ask for help, challenge ideas, and admit mistakes without worrying that they’ll be blamed, ignored, or treated unfairly. When people feel safe to contribute, teams often communicate better, solve problems more effectively, and generate more innovative ideas.

Most of these activities can be delivered either in person or online. If you’re running virtual training, use video conferencing software with breakout rooms and a shared whiteboard where appropriate.

What Are the Best Psychological Safety Activities for Employees?

1. Personal Histories

The Personal Histories activity helps participants build empathy and trust by learning more about one another before moving into deeper discussion. It’s especially effective for new teams or groups that haven’t worked closely together before.

Time: 45 minutes.

Number of Participants: 4 or more participants

Equipment Needed: Pens and paper.

As you ask participants to narrate a personal story to the other members of the group, this is one of those psychological safety activities that allows people to get to know each other and create rapport, which increases empathy and understanding.

This is also one of the most effective psychological safety at work exercises to help establish and build trust in teams.

How to Run the Activity: Start by asking participants to work together in groups of 4.

Then, explain that each person in the group will need to share a personal story, i.e., something that happened to them, which they are comfortable telling the others.

The story can be related to work, family, their childhood, their education, or a significant moment in their career or personal life.

Allow 5 minutes for each person in the group to tell their story to their group.

Then, reconvene your participants and ask each person in the group to tell the rest of the class one key thing they learned about someone else.

During the debrief, you can discuss with the participants how learning something new about other people brought them closer together and increased their understanding of other people. You can also discuss if they noticed common threads in the stories that people told.

2. Host an Anxiety Party

This activity facilitates employees to discuss workplace concerns openly in a supportive environment. By discovering that others share similar worries, participants often become more comfortable speaking honestly.

Time: 30 minutes.

Number of Participants: From 3.

Equipment Needed:

• Sticky notes or index cards
• Pens
• Flip chart or whiteboard

During this exercise, employees are enabled to express their concerns and understand the importance of supporting each other.

How to Run the Activity: Give your participants pens and sticky notes.

Then, ask each person to think about any concerns, anxieties, or fears they have that are related to work and to write them down on the sticky notes (one concern per note).

After they have done this, collect all the sticky notes and attach them to a flipchart or a board, grouping them by type or category.

Hold a discussion on what common threads you have identified and what you can do about them.

Encourage problem-solving by asking how employees can support each other and how the problems that cause these fears can be addressed.

It is also vital that you encourage all to speak and involve everyone in the discussion, even those employees or team members who are not usually very vocal.

3. No-Interruptions Rule

This activity develops active listening skills by ensuring everyone has uninterrupted time to speak. It helps create an environment where employees feel their opinions are respected and valued.

Time: 30 minutes.

Number of Participants: At least 4.

Equipment Needed: None.

A common obstacle to psychological safety is the inability that we often have to listen to other people without interrupting.

This happens quite often because we are more preoccupied with saying what we are thinking, rather than with taking on board what other people are saying.

In addition, people who are continually interrupted when speaking (particularly the most introverted among us) are likely to give up trying to speak altogether at some point, which leads to a lack of psychological safety.

How to Run the Activity: Gather your employees for a team meeting.

At the start of the meeting, explain that there is a rule that everybody must follow, which is that when somebody is speaking, nobody is allowed to interrupt them. They must first let the speaker finish what they are saying, and then they can start talking.

As the meeting facilitator, observe the team’s interactions and gently remind participants of this rule whenever you see it being broken.

Do the same at every team meeting, and soon this rule should become an ingrained habit in your employees’ minds. It may not be easy to start with, but it is worth keeping at it, as following this rule will help everybody be more comfortable speaking up.

Remember to lead by example and follow this rule too, as the leader.

When you enforce the rule for the first time, at the end of the meeting, have a discussion with your team members about how it feels to be able to speak without interruptions, if they found it hard to listen to others without interrupting, and why. Also, gather any feedback on how this rule can be maintained in future meetings.

4. Gradually Open the Conversation: 1-2-4-All

1-2-4-All gives quieter team members the chance to develop and share their ideas in stages, making it easier for everyone to contribute. It’s an excellent activity for encouraging balanced participation during workshops and team meetings.

Time: 40 minutes.

Number of Participants: At least 4.

Equipment Needed:

• Pens and paper
• Flip chart or whiteboard (optional)
• Markers (optional)

Participants start the activity by first working on their own, then in pairs, then in groups of four, and finally with the rest of the class.

This gradual approach to opening the conversation is good for helping quiet and introverted people express their ideas in a way that feels safe for them.

As a result, this is one of the most effective psychological safety activities to promote collaboration and team building, as everyone should be able to give their input.

How to Run the Activity: This activity works in four phases:

1. Ask participants to start working on their own to reflect on a topic or a question that you will have brought up with them, and jot down their thoughts.
2. Then, ask participants to pair up to talk through their ideas together.
3. Ask participants to now work in groups of 4 (by joining up pairs) and share the insights from their previous pair discussion.
4. Finally, have each group of four summarise the key points from their discussions with the rest of the class. You can ask them to write down their key points on a flipchart for the presentation.

As part of the final discussion, ask participants for some feedback on this process.

For example, you can ask them if and how this system helped everyone have their voice heard and how it could be used in other situations where the whole team’s input is needed.

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5. Fail Forward

Nobody enjoys making mistakes, but discussing them openly is often where the best learning happens. This activity encourages participants to share experiences, reflect on what they’ve learned, and become more comfortable talking about setbacks.

Time: 45 minutes.

Number of Participants: 4, at least.

Equipment Needed:

• Pens and paper
• Flip chart or whiteboard
• Markers

Quite commonly, one of the reasons why we don’t speak up is that we are afraid of making mistakes. Also, we might not raise concerns about other people’s mistakes, as we may not want to point them out, since mistakes are usually perceived as being something that is solely negative.

Instead, one of the key features of psychological safety is that mistakes are not to be feared as they are opportunities for learning and growth.

So, part of creating a psychologically safe environment is to encourage employees to own up to mistakes, and this activity can help them get into that mentality.

How to Run the Activity: Ask each participant to think about a time when they failed at something (it may be at work or in their personal life) and then learned from that failure.

Ask each participant to share their experience with the rest of the group, and then have a discussion on the importance of making mistakes and learning from them.

Highlight any common themes that may show in each person’s story and discuss how the team members can support each other when mistakes happen.

Essentially, you want to create a culture that uses failure as something that people can learn from. The key is to allow mistakes and even celebrate failure. In other words, encourage your team to develop a growth mindset.

6. Stop, Start, Continue

Giving feedback doesn’t have to be difficult or uncomfortable. This simple activity helps teams discuss what’s working well, what needs to change, and what they should keep doing in a positive and constructive way.

Time: 40 minutes.

Number of Participants: From 5 upwards.

Equipment Needed:

• Post-it notes
• Pens
• Flip chart or whiteboard

To be a psychological safety leader, one of the things you want to do is encourage feedback from your employees, particularly constructive feedback, which will also help you include your team in decision-making more effectively.

How to Run the Activity: Give each person on the team three stacks of sticky notes of three different colors; for example, pink, yellow, and green.

Then ask each person to write down one practice or behavior on each sticky note, as follows:

• On pink notes, write the things that they would like the team or the organization to stop doing.
• On yellow notes, the things that they are happy to be continued as they are.
• On green notes, things that they would like to start happening.

Collect the sticky notes and group them by color in three sections on the whiteboard (i.e., pink under stop, yellow under continue, and green under start).

Discuss the items that come up with your team, including any clear themes and any changes that the team might want to make, and how to implement them.

7. Team Effectiveness Exercise

Every team has strengths, but it’s not always obvious what’s helping the team perform well. This activity encourages participants to identify those strengths and explore how they can work together even more effectively.

Time: 45 minutes.

Number of Participants: From 4.

Equipment Needed:

• Flip charts
• Whiteboard
• Markers

Hence, this activity, as well as allowing for constructive feedback, gives you the opportunity to celebrate wins with your team and give recognition to them.

As you run this activity with your team, make sure to show a positive attitude, express your appreciation, and focus on team and individual development.

How to Run the Activity: Have your participants work in 4s and ask each group to come up with a list of qualities that an effective team has, and write them down on a flipchart.

Once they have done that, hang the flipchart sheets next to each other and compile one list of the most important qualities on a whiteboard.

Ask the participants to start working in their groups again and discuss which of the qualities their team has, where they excel, and where they could improve.

Finish with a discussion on what the team could do to improve in their weak areas and make the most of their strengths.

8. Just Like Me

When people first join a group, it’s easy to focus on the differences between them. This activity helps participants learn to appreciate others through hearing about their shared experiences and interests, making it easier to build rapport and work together.

Time: 20 minutes.

Number of Participants: From 5 upwards.

Equipment Needed: None.

As the employees talk about themselves and identify things they share with each other, they build a climate of trust, which is conducive to psychological safety.

How to Run the Activity: Have the team members positioned to form a circle.

Start the exercise by asking one person to stand in the middle of the circle and say something about themselves, such as something they enjoy or care about. For instance, they might say “I love chocolate” or “I dance tango once a week”.

Then, those who do or like the same thing can say “Just like me”, while those who don’t share the same passion can still show an interest. They can ask questions, for example, “I would be interested in learning tango, do you know of any classes for beginners?” or “What type of chocolate do you prefer?”

These may seem mundane conversations, but they help the team to know each other, build connections, and encourage open communication, which should then help employees be more comfortable working together.

Ask the participants to take turns so that each one has a chance to share something about themselves.

At the end of the game, have a conversation to reflect on what has been shared. For instance, you can ask the participants if there were commonalities that surprised them or how this activity might help them communicate better in the future.

9. Backward Glance

Taking time to reflect on previous experiences can reveal valuable lessons for the future. This activity encourages participants to look back on past successes and challenges so they can identify practical ways to improve.

Time: 45 minutes.

Number of Participants: At least 4.

Equipment Needed:

• Flip chart or whiteboard
• Markers
• Sticky notes

How to Run the Activity: On a whiteboard, draw 4 columns with the following headers: Liked, Disliked, Learned, and Lacked.

Then, give participants some sticky notes and ask them to think of the latest project they completed.

Ask them to identify the things they liked, disliked, learned, and lacked during the project and write them down on the sticky notes you gave them (one item per note).

Finally, ask them to stick each note under one of the corresponding headers on the whiteboard.

End the exercise with a discussion about the last project around the ideas that emerged during the activity. Ask participants to reflect on what they liked and disliked, what could be done better in the future and how, what they learned, and what kind of support or resources they missed.

10. Unify Team Energy

One of the quickest ways to improve teamwork is to make sure everyone is working to the same agenda and to the same goals. This activity gets participants working together towards a shared goal, helping to build cooperation, trust, and a stronger sense of team spirit.

Time: 35 minutes.

Number of Participants: 2 or more participants.

Equipment Needed:

• Markers
• Flipchart or whiteboard

How to Run the Activity: Gather your team together and then ask each participant to mention up to three things that energize them at work, and up to three things that drain their energy.

For example, three things that might energize an employee may be receiving positive feedback for the work they do, feeling part of the team by being able to joke and laugh with others, and engaging with a variety of interesting tasks.

On the other hand, three things that might drain an employee’s energy may be doing monotonous tasks, being taken for granted by their manager, and poor communication.

Write down and summarise the team’s contributions and then start a discussion on what the most common energizing and draining factors are, how the team members can support each other, and an action plan for the future (i.e., on what the team can do to increase the energizing factors and decrease the energy drainers).

11. Empathy Questions

Good teamwork starts with understanding other people’s experiences and perspectives. These empathy questions encourage meaningful conversations that build trust and help make workplace relationships stronger.

Time: 30 minutes.

Number of Participants: From 4 upwards.

Equipment Needed: You won’t need any.

How to Run the Activity: The participants sit in a circle, and you, the facilitator, ask a question to each person in turn. The questions should be open and aimed at finding out more about how that person feels and their point of view.

Also, it is extremely important that you encourage all the other participants to listen actively (i.e., concentrate, don’t get distracted, and show with their body language that they are listening).

Some examples of empathy questions can include:

• What was the biggest challenge you faced recently at work, and how did it make you feel?
• What did you wish others understood about your role?
• Was there a time when you felt supported at work, and what happened?

Make sure you ask one question to each participant and then end the exercise by having a discussion, which can include whether they spotted any common themes and what they learned by listening to other people’s feelings, concerns, and hopes.

12. Intention vs Perception

We don’t always realise how our words or actions are interpreted by others. This activity encourages participants to explore the difference between intention and perception, helping to reduce misunderstandings and improve communication.

Time: 40 minutes.

Number of Participants: At least 2.

Equipment Needed: You won’t need any.

How to Run the Activity: Have the participants form pairs to work together.

Ask each person in the pair to share with the other a situation in which they were misunderstood by someone or misunderstood another person.

They should tell what happened, why the misunderstanding might have taken place, how they solved it, and what they learned from the situation.

After the discussion in pairs, ask each pair to share the key points from their conversation with the rest of the class and have a discussion on how communication can be improved to minimize the risk of miscommunication.

This guide is part of our Workplace Wellness Guides collection, where you’ll find additional evidence-based resources for HR professionals and trainers.

Benefits of Psychological Safety Activities at Work

Psychological safety in itself has many benefits in the workplace, including improving collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving, as everyone feels safe when giving their input and feedback.

In addition, engaging in psychological safety activities can have other benefits for the team and the employees, such as:

• Increased confidence
• Better engagement and job satisfaction
• More effective conflict management
• Appreciation for learning from mistakes
• General personal and professional growth

Ready to Deliver Your Own Psychological Safety Workshop?

If these activities have given you ideas for your next session but you’d rather not create an entire workshop from scratch, our ready-to-use Psychological Safety Training Materials include everything you need to deliver a professional trainer-led course.