Last year, I wrote an article about how Psychological Safety is the Real Change Accelerator, and I’ve received some questions asking how leaders can build psychological safety during digital transformations. Below is my first take on develop a “Do This / Not That” Guide for Building Psychological Safety During a Digital Transformation. I’ve added some example context for the utility industry I’m currently working in, but you can apply these recommendations across many industries.
If you’d like me to continue expanding on these strategies or explore ideas for later project phases, please let me know!
Do This / Not That: Your Leadership Guide
Psychological safety doesn’t start with a fancy kick-off or when training begins. It starts the moment people hear, “Where’s getting a new system.”
Before a single design workshop happens, leaders are already signaling whether this transformation will be safe, collaborative, and human…or stressful, political, and disconnected.
This guide breaks down how to lead with safety and trust through three pivotal project phases:
- Before the project begins (RFP development, SI selection, resourcing, and internal alignment)
- Team formation and onboarding
- The first months of discovery and design
Building Psychological Safety Early
The best time to start building psychological safety is before your project even starts.
| Do This | Not That | Why It Matters (the hidden mechanism) |
|---|---|---|
| Involve trusted internal voices early. Ask experienced employees from across departments to review RFPs and SI presentations, and then create a space/forum for them to share what worries and/or excites them. Their input builds ownership before the contract is signed. | Select your SI behind closed doors, then “announce” it as a done deal, which signals decisions will be made in isolation and feedback doesn’t matter. | Involvement creates safety faster than information. When people see peers included, they infer psychological safety by proxy: “If my peers voices matter, maybe mine will too.” |
| Talk about values as part of vendor selection. Ask prospective SIs how they handle conflict and how they create safe, collaborative project environments (not just how they deliver scope). | Focus only on technical capability, timeline, and cost, and this invites partners who deliver code but damage culture. | Vendors copy leadership tone. If the RFP rewards efficiency over understanding, the project culture will too…and fear will spread downward. |
| Set expectations that “psychological safety” is a success metric. Build it into contracts and kickoff messaging: We want a culture of curiosity, not fear. | Treat safety as a soft optional add-on. | People believe what leaders measure. If you measure safety, people will protect it. If you don’t, they’ll protect themselves. |
| Be transparent about why the transformation is happening. Even if every detail isn’t final, share the “why” early to prevent rumor-driven anxiety. | Wait for perfect answers before sharing anything. Secrecy breeds fear and makes even good news sound suspicious. | Ambiguity breeds rumors, not trust. Early honesty, even partial, signals that truth has a seat at the table. |
| Plan resourcing conversations with empathy. Acknowledge that back-filling and reassignments cause stress. Offer clarity and timelines early. | Reassign people without detailed context. | Clarity prevents threat response. Uncertainty triggers the brain’s survival mode, while clarity shuts it off and keeps people cooperative. |
Team Formation and Onboarding
| Do This | Not That | Why It Matters (the hidden mechanism) |
|---|---|---|
| Co-create team norms. Involve both SI and internal team members in setting expectations for communication, feedback, and decision-making. | Dictate ground rules from the top or copy-paste them from another project. | Co-creation builds ownership. People follow rules they helped write because they attach identity to them. |
| Model vulnerability from day one. Leaders should admit what they don’t know and ask questions out loud. | Act like you already have all the answers. People will match your defensiveness. | Leaders set the permission structure. If you never model uncertainty, no one else will either, and silence becomes the norm. |
| Acknowledge the emotional shift. Moving from day jobs to project roles changes identity and routine. Give people space to name what they’re losing and what they hope to gain. | Pretend it’s just another assignment. It’s not. It’s a career-defining experience for many. | Identity loss feels like danger. Acknowledging emotion normalizes it and re-establishes belonging. |
| Design meetings that balance voices. Make it easy for quieter contributors to speak (use round-robins, small-group huddles, or chat channels). | Let the loudest extroverts or most senior voices dominate early discussions. | Safety equals airtime. People judge whether it’s safe to speak by who gets heard. |
| Celebrate small, early examples of curiosity and collaboration. Recognize behaviors like knowledge-sharing and problem-solving, not just deliverables. | Wait until the first major milestone to recognize anyone. That teaches people to stay invisible until the finish line. | Early recognition creates a cultural imprint. Whatever you celebrate first becomes what people replicate. |
Discovery and Design Phase
| Do This | Not That | Why it Matters (the hidden mechanism) |
|---|---|---|
| Normalize “I don’t know.” Encourage teams to flag unclear processes or gaps without embarrassment. Turn those moments into learning, not judgment. | Shame or rush through (or avoid) uncertainty. | Curiosity is the antidote to fear. When it’s safe to not know, it’s safe to learn, which accelerates design quality. |
| Invite field and front-line perspectives into design session. Their lived experience anchors reality and earns trust. | Keep discovery limited to leaders or analysts. The system won’t fit the work if the workers aren’t in the room. | Reality builds credibility. When people who “do the work” shape the system, the rest of the workforce trusts the outcome. |
| Balance speed with inclusion. Move efficiently, but not at the expense of hearing diverse voices. Say, “We’ll make a quick decision, but we’ll make it together.” | Push for fast answers to “stay on schedule” even when context is missing. That erodes confidence and leads to rework later. | Micro-behaviors shape macro-culture. What goes unchecked becomes acceptable and silence grows. |
| Reflect progress regularly. End discovery sessions with, “What’s working well in how we’re collaborating? What could we adjust?” | Treat retrospectives as a project-management chore. Without reflection, small fractures become culture cracks. | Reflection is a trust ritual. It signals that feedback has a home and leadership isn’t defensive. |
| Connect meaning back to mission. Frame every design decision through the company’s core purpose (e.g. safety, reliability, and service). | Let discussions drift into system language only. People disengage when they can’t see the “why.” | Purpose recharges motivation. People tolerate uncertainty better when they remember why the change exists. |
Leadership Micro-Habits That Quietly Build Psychological Safety
| Habit | Why it Works |
|---|---|
| Say “Thank you for speaking up.” (even if you disagree) | Reinforces that contribution does not equal compliance. |
| Ask, “What do you need to feel supported?” | Invites emotional truth instead of surface agreement. |
| Share, “What I learned” instead of “What went wrong.” | Models growth instead of blame. |
| Start meetings with one moment of connection. | Regulates nervous system stress before problem-solving. |
| Revisit expectations monthly. | Psychological Safety isn’t permanent, it needs maintenance. |
Quick Psychological Safety Leadership Reminders
- Psychological Safety is contagious. When one leader shows curiosity instead of control, others follow.
- Correct in private, praise in public. It’s a small behavioral shift that protects dignity.
- Use humor wisely. Levity builds connection; sarcasm builds distance.
- Say “thank you” more than “hurry up.” People move faster when they feel valued.
- Ask what’s hard. It’s the simplest trust-building question you can use.
Final Thought on Building Psychological Safety
The technical build of a digital transformation like ERP will take years. The cultural foundation for it takes shape in the first few months.
Every hiring conversation, meeting, and design decision sends a message: It’s safe to be real here… or…. It’s safer to stay quiet.
Choose the first message on purpose. That’s how you build a team that tells the truth, learns fast, and stays healthy long enough to finish the work.
