Why do some people openly say when they have made a mistake – while others prefer to stay quiet?

Why do some teams feel confident enough to ask critical questions, while others wait, agree, or hide problems?

This is where psychological safety begins.

Psychological safety describes a team climate in which people can speak openly. They can ask questions, raise concerns, admit mistakes, or contribute new ideas without fearing that they will be embarrassed, punished, or devalued for doing so.

At first, that may sound soft. But it is not.

Psychological safety does not mean that everything is always harmonious. It also does not mean that anything goes or that performance no longer matters. Quite the opposite: teams with psychological safety can learn more clearly, honestly, and quickly because important information is not hidden.

So it is not about being nice.

It is about the ability to learn.

Why psychological safety matters

In teams with low psychological safety, the following often happens:

  • People speak up about problems too late.
  • Mistakes are hidden or softened.
  • Meetings stay superficial.
  • New ideas are held back.
  • Criticism is taken personally.
  • Decisions seem agreed on, even though many people are not actually convinced.

This costs energy. And it prevents development.

In psychologically safe teams, you are more likely to see:

  • People ask questions when something is unclear.
  • Mistakes are used as learning information.
  • Different perspectives can exist side by side.
  • Feedback becomes more specific.
  • Risks become visible earlier.
  • Responsibility is shared.

This is especially important in complex situations. When no one can know everything alone, teams need to be able to think, speak, and learn openly together.

What does this have to do with the EDSO model?

The EDSO model offers a neurobiologically inspired perspective on leadership and collaboration. It refers to four messenger substances that can influence how people experience work and teamwork:

  • Endorphins
  • Dopamine
  • Serotonin
  • Oxytocin

The model is often used in leadership and training contexts to make motivation, trust, and collaboration easier to understand.

Important: the EDSO model is not a medical diagnosis. It is also not a complete explanation of human behavior. It is more like a helpful lens. It helps us understand why some team dynamics create safety, while others trigger stress and self-protection.

When people feel unsafe for a longer period of time, the nervous system tends to move into protection mode. Energy and attention are then used less for learning, creativity, and collaboration – and more for self-protection.

Or, more simply:

When people are afraid of looking bad, they say less.
When people feel safe, they are more likely to think with the team.

E for Endorphins: Managing strain and resilience

Endorphins are often associated with pain regulation, resilience, and the ability to keep going in the short term. In a team context, this is not about making people “tougher”. It is about designing workload consciously.

A team needs phases where things can be challenging. But it also needs relief, breaks, and realistic expectations.

If the strain is too high for too long, psychological safety does not grow. People simply start functioning.

Signs that safety may be missing

  • People seem exhausted but do not say anything.
  • Heavy workload is treated as normal.
  • Asking for help is seen as weakness.
  • Mistakes happen more often but are rarely discussed.
  • Humor, lightness, and informal exchange disappear.

What helps

  • Talk openly and regularly about workload.
  • Do not only ask: “What is the status?” Also ask: “What is blocking you right now?”
  • Make asking for help visibly acceptable.
  • Clarify priorities instead of making everything equally urgent.
  • Mark progress and small wins consciously.

Practical leadership sentence

“What do you need so that this task stays challenging, but does not become overwhelming?”

D for Dopamine: Progress, motivation, and clarity

Dopamine is often linked to motivation, goal orientation, and reward. In the workplace, this matters because people need to feel progress.

When goals are unclear, priorities change constantly, or work never really feels finished, motivation drops. The team loses orientation.

Psychological safety therefore needs more than trust. It also needs structure.

Signs that safety may be missing

  • People work a lot but see little impact.
  • Tasks remain vague.
  • Priorities change constantly.
  • Small progress is not made visible.
  • The team feels externally controlled.

What helps

  • Formulate goals clearly.
  • Break work into smaller steps.
  • Make progress visible.
  • Explain decisions transparently.
  • Celebrate not only results, but also learning and good experiments.

Practical leadership sentence

“What is the next small, visible step of progress we want to achieve this week?”

S for Serotonin: Recognition, status, and belonging

Serotonin is often associated with recognition, social status, and pride. In a team, this means: people want to be seen. Not only for perfect results, but also for their contribution, attitude, and development.

Psychological safety suffers when recognition is distributed unevenly or when only the loudest, fastest, or most visible people are noticed.

This creates internal hierarchies. And as soon as people fear losing status, they become more cautious.

Signs that safety may be missing

  • The same people always speak.
  • Quieter team members hold back.
  • Criticism is experienced as a personal attack.
  • Recognition goes only to a few individuals.
  • Mistakes damage someone’s reputation in the team.

What helps

  • Make contributions visible.
  • Actively invite quieter voices.
  • Formulate recognition specifically.
  • Do not connect feedback with loss of status.
  • Frame success as team performance.

Practical leadership sentence

“I want to briefly make visible what this contribution meant for our team.”

O for Oxytocin: Trust, connection, and collaboration

Oxytocin is often associated with trust, social bonding, and cooperation. For psychological safety, this is especially important.

People speak more openly when they experience:

  • I am not immediately judged.
  • I am heard.
  • My contribution matters.
  • Others will not use my openness against me.

Trust does not come from one team event. It develops through repeated experiences in everyday work.

Signs that safety may be missing

  • People protect themselves strongly.
  • Information is held back.
  • Conflicts are avoided.
  • Honest feedback is rare.
  • Decisions are pre-discussed outside the team.

What helps

  • Show reliability in everyday work.
  • Keep agreements.
  • Treat confidential information confidentially.
  • Do not personalize mistakes.
  • Ask questions before judging.
  • Address conflicts early and respectfully.

Practical leadership sentence

“Thank you for bringing this up. Let’s first understand what happened before we evaluate it.”

The opposing force: stress and cortisol

Alongside EDSO, stress is important as well. When people fear embarrassment, punishment, or loss of status, they are more likely to move into protection mode.

In teams, this can show up as:

  • Silence in meetings
  • Justification instead of reflection
  • Blame instead of root-cause analysis
  • Withdrawal
  • Cynicism
  • Doing only what is required

That is why psychological safety is not a nice-to-have. It determines whether a team can recognize problems early enough and solve them together.

Fostering psychological safety: first steps for teams

Psychological safety does not emerge from a statement like: “From now on, we are open.”

It emerges through behavior.

Repeatedly.
Concretely.
In everyday work.

1. Start with a simple team question

Helpful starting questions are:

  • When is it easy for us to speak openly?
  • When do we tend to hold back?
  • Which topics do we address too late?
  • What would need to happen so that we share mistakes earlier?
  • How would we notice that our team has become safer?

Important: do not solve immediately. First understand.

2. Open meetings differently

Many meetings start directly with tasks. That is efficient, but not always effective.

A short check-in can help:

  • What is on your mind right now?
  • What do you need today to contribute well?
  • Is there anything we should know before we start?

This does not have to take long. Two minutes can be enough.

3. Make mistakes less dramatic

Mistakes become productive when they do not have to be hidden.

Helpful questions after a mistake are:

  • What happened?
  • What did we assume?
  • What did we overlook?
  • What can we learn from this?
  • What will we change specifically?

Less helpful questions are:

  • Who is to blame?
  • Why did you do that?
  • How could this happen?

The second version creates justification. The first version creates learning.

4. Actively invite disagreement

In many teams, agreement is overestimated. Just because no one disagrees does not mean everyone is convinced.

It is better to actively invite disagreement:

  • What speaks against this idea?
  • Which risks are we not seeing yet?
  • Who has a different perspective?
  • What would our customers criticize about this?
  • Which assumption should we test before we decide?

This reduces pressure. Criticism is then not experienced as disruption, but as a contribution to quality.

5. Leadership goes first

Psychological safety develops faster when leaders show that learning is allowed.

For example, through sentences like:

  • I do not know that right now.
  • I was wrong about that.
  • I need your perspective.
  • Thank you for pointing that out. I had not seen it.
  • Let’s check this together.

That sounds simple. But it is powerful.

Because teams observe very closely whether openness is only expected – or actually modeled.

6. Make feedback smaller and more regular

Feedback is often made too big. Then it becomes heavy, emotional, and rare.

Small feedback moments in everyday work are more helpful:

  • What was helpful?
  • What was unclear?
  • What should we do differently next time?
  • What would you like to keep?
  • What do you need from me?

This makes feedback more normal. And less threatening.

7. Define team rules together

Psychological safety does not need long rulebooks. But a few clear agreements help.

For example:

  • We address problems early.
  • We ask before we judge.
  • We criticize behavior and processes, not people.
  • We make different perspectives visible.
  • We keep agreements.
  • We treat mistakes as learning information.
  • We give feedback concretely and respectfully.

Important: these rules should not only exist on paper. They need to be used in everyday work.

Small exercise: EDSO check for the team

A simple team check can make the model more tangible.

Take 20 minutes and rate together from 1 to 5:

Endorphins: workload

  • How well do we deal with strain?
  • Where do we keep going for too long?
  • Where do we need relief?

Dopamine: progress

  • How clear are our goals?
  • Do we see progress?
  • Do we celebrate small steps?

Serotonin: recognition

  • Who is seen?
  • Which contributions are overlooked?
  • How do we give recognition?

Oxytocin: trust

  • How openly do we talk about mistakes?
  • How safe is disagreement?
  • How reliable are we with one another?

After that, do not choose ten actions.

Choose one.

One concrete change for the next two weeks is enough.

Conclusion

Psychological safety is not a soft feel-good concept. It is the foundation that enables teams to speak openly, learn faster, and make better decisions.

The EDSO model helps us better understand the human side of collaboration:

  • Endorphins remind us to design strain consciously.
  • Dopamine shows how important progress and clear goals are.
  • Serotonin makes visible how strongly recognition and status influence behavior.
  • Oxytocin stands for trust, connection, and real collaboration.

In the end, psychological safety does not come from a model.

It comes from many small signals in everyday work.

Through listening.
Through asking questions.
Through clear orientation.
Through honest feedback.
Through the way we handle mistakes.
And through leadership that does not only demand performance, but makes learning possible.

The first step is often simple:

Do not ask: “Who is to blame?”
Ask: “What can we learn from this?”