Psychological Safety and Accountability in Action: An Experiential Classroom Exercise for Developing Both

Psychological safety is critical for high-performing teams, yet instructors struggle to help students build safety without sacrificing accountability. This experiential session introduces a classroom-tested activity where students practice holding others accountable while strengthening psychological safety. Participants will engage directly in the exercise, working through workplace scenarios that surface tensions between candor, care, performance, and inclusion. The activity integrates research on psychological safety, accountability conversations, and experiential learning theory. Participants receive a ready-to-use exercise with facilitation instructions, sample scenarios, and debrief questions for undergraduate and graduate organizational behavior courses.