Without justice, there can be no psychological safety.

Bring your whole self to work.  Feel free to raise your hand.  Psychological safety has become a modern call to action, for safety specialists wanting to create reporting environments, to human resource departments trying to create more inclusive workplaces.  It is a noble organizational program.

That said, we really don’t want employees to bring their whole selves to work.  Political opinions, racism, bigotry, antisemitism.  Work environments are meant to be a place where we can all feel safe, and free from discrimination or harassment of our workplace neighbors.  We think psychological safety is better thought of as bringing your better, workplace-appropriate version of yourself to work.  

To work, psychological safety programs need to be coupled with an effective system of workplace justice, that holds individuals accountable for conduct unbecoming, yet creates the safe space for work-appropriate dialogue and behavior.