Psychological Safety: Integrative Framework by Viktor Cessan

This framework was created by Viktor Cessan. The framework considers the Scale on which we are trying to create psychological safety (System or Individual) and the Perspective we are looking at (External or Internal), i.e. our interactions with other people or those with ourselves.



The Axes of Psychological Safety:
On one axis we have System and Individual Scale. 
The System side revolves around collaboration while the Individual side revolves around communication and interactions. The difference lies in whether there is a goal or not. 

On the other axis, we have the External and Internal Perspectives. The External Perspective includes things that happen outside of minds and emotions

The Four Quadrants:

External Systems Quadrant (ES): ES is about building an environment with safe interactions. This means that people feel it’s safe to take personal risks such as saying how they really feel, proposing their own ideas, and raising risks and concerns. This is done by removing and reducing negative consequences such as blame, punishment, and humiliation. Some of the underlying principles are to listen more, encourage curiosity, employ an open mindset, and make it safe to take risks.
In the ES quadrant, we need to:
  • Understand what makes an environment safe and unsafe.
  • Learn to recognize whether an environment is safe or unsafe.
  • Learn how to shift/turn an unsafe environment into a safe one.
External Individuals Quadrant (EI): In the EI quadrant, it’s about experiencing safety in all interactions which are not focused on a goal.
For the EI quadrant, we need to:
  • Learn to understand the array of needs and wants that different people have.
  • Understand how we affect other people. This is called literacy in diversity and culture.
Internal Systems Quadrant (IS): The IS quadrant focuses on managing ourselves at times and in environments and situations that we perceive to be unsafe.
For the IS quadrant, we need to:
  • Learn what environments are unsafe to us and how to recognize them.
  • Learn how to navigate safely in such environments (i.e. self-management).
Internal Individuals Quadrant (II): II is about interacting safely with oneself. Things such as self-talk fall under this dimension. For example, speaking aggressively to ourselves or being overly critical of ourselves creates an unsafe environment internally regardless of what the outer world looks like. On the other hand, being kind to ourselves, and listening to ourselves and our needs without judgment, helps make us feel safer to be as we are.
Finally, for the II quadrant, what’s necessary is to:
  • Understand our own needs and wants i.e., when we feel safe and when we do not.
  • Learn how to observe and distinguish between internal engagement patterns that build self-esteem versus those that harm it.
Seeing the four quadrants broken down and displayed visually in this way has helped us reflect on where we and our organizations are strong today and where we could use a bit more work to further improve psychological safety in the workplace.


Coach Ram


Credits: Balachandhiran Sankaran

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