Practices for Psychological Safety
Helen Sanderson explores practices that help teams build psychological safety, social connection, and autonomy. Drawing on her experience with Wellbeing Teams and self-management inspired by Buurtzorg, she shares insights for team leaders. The podcast covers practical approaches to help teams be authentic, connect, and do great work. It is aimed at any team leader wanting to improve team dynamics and performance.
Episodes
Building Psychological Safety as a Team Sport with Jade Garrett & Tom Geraghty
Psychological safety isn't just a leadership responsibility—it’s a team sport. Co-founders of psychsafety.com, Jade Garrett and Tom Geraghty explore how teams can practically dismantle power barriers and foster everyday trust.Rather than relying on top-down "leaderism" or oversimplified staged models, Jade and Tom break down what it actually takes to make speaking up meaningful, address steep orga
Creating an Inclusive and Thriving Workplace Culture in a GP surgery with Ben Allen
How do you turn around a struggling healthcare workplace with high turnover, low morale, and patient satisfaction below the national average - without an extra budget or more hours in the day?Dr. Ben Allen shares his remarkable journey of transforming Birley Health Centre into one of the UK's top-performing surgeries.Rather than chasing downstream symptoms, Ben took a step back to "invest in the s
The Power of Listening and Adult Conversations with Karin Tenelius
How do you address uncomfortable topics that hinder team progress?Karin Tenelius from Tuff Leadership Training joins Helen to argue that traditional management often fails because leaders prioritise broadcasting over genuine listening, a skill she defines as a state of being rather than a mere activity.-------Helen's new book Practices for Psychological Safety is available to pre-order (published
The Link Between Stress, Safety, and Performance with Dr Jessica Cooper
How does the nervous system influence team dynamics and psychological safety in the workplace?Helen chats to Dr. Jessica Cooper to explore practical ways to foster safety, resilience, and genuine connection within teams.-------Helen's new book Practices for Psychological Safety is available to pre-order (published October 2026)- https://www.koganpage.com/hr-learning-development/psychological-safet
What Really Strengthens Work Relationships with Colin Fisher
Organisational behaviour and innovation expert, Colin Fisher shares groundbreaking ideas on team dynamics, leadership, psychological safety, and how to foster effective collaboration.Discover how informal leadership, clarity of goals, social sensitivity, and reflective practices can transform team performance and organisational culture.Learn more about Colin and his work here https://colinmfisher.
Psychological Safety as a Feeling with Dr Amanda Potter
Dr Amanda Potter, CEO of B Talent chats to me about the psychometric tests that they've been developing and validating with 10 different scales based on how people are feeling about their work.-------Helen's new book Practices for Psychological Safety is available to pre-order (published October 2026)- https://www.koganpage.com/hr-learning-development/psychological-safety-in-practice-9781398629400
Embedding Practices for Psychological Safety with Rachael Dodgson
Dimensions have a long history of embedding some of the practices that we talk about in psychological safety. Rachael Dodgson, CEO of Dimensions joins me to talk about what it's like to scale some of the practices that we talk about as being important for psychological safety.-------Helen's new book Practices for Psychological Safety is available to pre-order (published October 2026)- https://www.
Nic Marks talks about happiness and psychological safety
I highly recommend Nic's new book - Happiness is a Serious Business
Putting Team Agreements into Practice
In this podcast I explain the six main ways to ensure that your team agreements make a difference.
A different approach to one-to-ones with Lu Dash
We have been doing action research with a range of leaders across health and social care to explore a different approach to one-to-ones. This has involved using Confirmation Practices around the person's roles, and around building psychological safety within the team. In this episode Lu Dash, Deputy CEO, describes her experience of being part of this research.
What happens to Team Agreements when new team members join? Michelle Livesley explains.
What do you do when new team members join an established team? Do you start Team Agreements from scratch again, or expect them to accept the Team Agreements as they are?Michelle explains how she approached this in a service in Camden.She also introduced the principles of Team Agreements with the people who live in the Extra Care Scheme.Michelle Livesley is my friend and colleague, and you can find
Using Team Agreements in Recruitment with Sam Jones
What difference could it make if Team Agreements were part of the recruitment, induction and probation process?This is what Sam is experimenting with. Sam Jones is an Associate Director,Locality Impact in North East and Yorkshire at the Stroke Association.To talk more about using Team Agreements in recruitment and practices for psychological safety please connect with me on Linked In https://www.l
A different approach to one-to-ones with Speech and Language Therapists
We have been doing action research with a range of leaders across health and social care to explore a different approach to one-to-ones. This has involved using Confirmation Practices around the person's roles, and around building psychological safety within the team. In this episode two Speech and Language Therapists from Communicate SLT CIC Caroline Coyne, the CEO and Founder, and .Rhian Owen de
Talking team Immunity to Change maps with Diana Cole
What can you do when your team keeps getting stuck with one of their Team Agreements?One option is to use an Immunity to Change map, and in this podcast Diana explains how we did this, and the impact that it had on the team, and what they are doing now.Diana Cole is the CEO at Community, Equality, Disability Action (CEDA).To talk more about using Immunity to Change maps and Team Agreements please
Can you scale Team Agreements? Find out from Martin O'Connor
Can Team Agreements be scaled across an organisation?Martin is a clinical and coaching psychologist in Ireland and talks about how he is introducing Team Agreements at scale and what he is learning from this.To talk more about Team Agreements and practices for psychological safety please connect with me on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/helensandersonhsa/ and there is more information on wh
A team leaders perspective on Team Agreements with Rachel Owen
Rachel describes how she introduced Team Agreements to Flying Start at the Isle of Anglesey Council. She talks about where the team was at the beginning, what she did and the impact that this has had.A podcast to listen to if you want to hear a team leaders perspective on developing Team Agreements.To talk more about usingTeam Agreements please connect with me on Linked In https://www.linkedin.com
Talking Immunity to Change maps with Barb
If you have imposter syndrome, can you change it?I supported Barb Swartz-Biscaro to develop her Immunity to Change map and in this podcast she talks about they change she wanted to make around her confidence, how she created her map, and the impact of the experiments she did.PS Barb shows that the answer is yes.To talk more about Immunity to Change maps and how they are used in practice please con
Talking preventing bullying using Team Agreements with Liza Collins
Liza opened my eyes to the potential of Team Agreements being a potential preventive strategy. Can they help prevent bullying and harassment in the workplace? Liza thinks so and explains why in this podcast.Liza has her own podcast series and you can find her at the Positive Change Podcast on Spotify.To talk more about Team Agreements and practices for psychological safety please connect with me o
Using Confirmation Practices around roles with Sam Jones
What is it like to start using Confirmation Practices around your roles?In this episode Sam explains what it was like to get started, how she is using them, and the difference they are making.This is what Sam is experimenting with. Sam Jones is an Associate Director,Locality Impact in North East and Yorkshire at the Stroke Association.To talk more about using Confirmation Practices and practices f
A different approach to one-to-ones with Lyse Edwards
We have been doing action research with a range of leaders across health and social care to explore a different approach to one-to-ones. This has involved using Confirmation Practices around the person's roles, and around building psychological safety within the team. In this episode Lyse Edwards, Head of Operations with the Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, describes her exper
A different approach to one-to-ones with Sam Jones
We have been doing action research with a range of leaders across health and social care to explore a different approach to one-to-ones. This has involved using Confirmation Practices around the person's roles, and around building psychological safety within the team. In this episode Sam Jones, Regional Director with The Stroke Association, describes her experience of being part of this research.
Sam ITC
-------Visit helensandersonassociates.co.uk for information on the initiatives discussed in this episode.
Talking about creating Team Agreements with Vicky Ferrier
I spent the day with Vicky and her team supporting them to create their Team Agreements and decide on ways to keep them alive.If you want to know the steps you can take to create Team Agreements, from individual, team to organisation, then this is the podcast to listen to.Vicky Ferrier is the Chief People and Commercial Officer at Konsileo. Konsileo is an innovative, self-managed brokerage team. Y
Talking values with Jackie Le Fevre and Alan Williams
What are values and why do they matter in the workplace?Jackie and Alan are the leading thinkers and practitioners around values in the UK. Jackie was one of our national advisors in Wellbeing Teams and helped us to identify and embed our values in the teams.In this podcast we talk about what values are (and are not) and what they can mean in practice in teams and organisations.You can find Dr Jac
Talking psychological safety with Tom Geraghty and Jade Garratt
What is psychological safety, why does it matter and what practices can help?In 2024 I completed an in-depth programme on psychological safety with Tom and Jade and love their informed, considered and practical approach. I highly recommend their newsletter (sign up at psychsafety.com). In this podcast we talk about the importance of social contracts, like team agreements in building psychological
Introducing Confirmation Practices
Confirmation Practices are simple routines for systematic reflective practice. They were developed by Andy Brogan and help individuals and teams hold themselves to account and set goals to keep improving.Confirmation Practices are a way to transform how organisations approach accountability and performance management. They replace what Andy Brogan calls ‘traditional scorekeeping with sense-making’
Introducing Immunity to Change Maps
What do you do when you get stuck on a goal you have been working on? Or a team agreement that the team is struggling with? Could it be that your/their mindset is getting in the way?The Immunity to Change approach developed by Harvard’s Robert Kagan and Lisa Lahey is a way to identify the assumptions (mindset) that gets in the way of making progress, and how to overturn them.This is crucial for le
Introducing Team Agreements
Team Agreements are a co-created list of statements that describe the behaviours that the team commits to in their work together. They are a foundation of psychological safety.In these podcasts we talk about the impact of team agreements on how teams work together and how to ensure that they are living, and make a difference to peoples relationships and work, and not just words on a file.To talk m
