Psychological Safety during Work Assignment

A Self-Reflection Tool for Scrum Masters

Psychological safety is the belief that you won’t be punished or judged for speaking up, asking questions, or making mistakes. It’s what enables people to step forward, share ideas, take risks, and challenge the status quo – behaviours essential for a self-organizing team striving for excellence.

Without psychological safety, you will not be able to harness the collective intelligence of the whole team. People will take orders without complaint – but they will not give the best they have to offer.

Your Planning Style sends a Signal

As a Scrum Master, your role in Sprint Planning is more influential than it might seem. Beyond timeboxes and facilitation, how you handle work assignment sends a powerful signal to your team:

• Do they feel trusted to step forward and engage without fear or hesitation?

• Or, are they expected to listen and follow instructions from seniors?

  
  

Are You (unintentionally) Pushing your Ideas?

Many Scrum Masters are surprised to discover how seemingly neutral language can create pressure. Here are a few common examples of well-intentioned prompts that may feel like a Scrum Master pushing forward their ideas:

• “Can you pick up this story?”

• “Will two days be enough?”

• “Are you sure it’ll take three days?”

These may come from good intentions and confidence in your judgment, but they can unintentionally undermine psychological safety.

A Quick Self-Assessment: How Safe Is Your Planning?

Here’s a lightweight reflection you can use to assess your work assignment approach in Sprint Planning.

Step 1: Review the Work Assignment

Look at how each story or task was assigned during a recent Sprint Planning session. It will be best if you have a recording, otherwise just rely on your memory.

Categorize each assignment (story or task) into one of the following:

A.  You (or a senior team member) assigned the work to a team member, and it was accepted without objection.

B.  You (or a senior team member) asked a team member if they can (or would like to) work on that item, and they agreed.

C.  A team member volunteered for the work item on their own, and it was assigned to them.

D.  A team member volunteered for the work item, but you (or a senior team member) suggested another team member would be better suited for that work. Everyone seemed to agree with the idea, so the work was assigned to that new person.

E.  Don't recall, or difficult to categorize

Tally the number of cases as A, B, C, D, and E.

Step 2: Calculate Psychological Safety Score for your Planning Session

Use this formula to calculate Psychological Safety score on a scale of -100 to +100:

Score = 100 × [C - A - B - 2×D] / (A + B + C + D)

Notes:

• If the denominator is 0 (no assignments were categorized), the score is invalid.

• E cases are excluded from the calculations, but if E is more than 20%, consider recording the Planning session to gain better insights.

• If the result is below -100, cap it at -100.

What Does Your Score Mean?

80 to 100 => Excellent psychological safety. Your team feels safe to speak up and contribute.

30 to 79 => Moderate safety. Some pressure might still exist; observe and coach.

0 to 29 => Risk zone. The team might be playing it safe and hesitating to step forward.

Below 0 => Warning signs. The environment may be more directive than collaborative.

This assessment isn’t meant to judge - it’s meant to create awareness. If your score is low, use it as a signal to pause and reflect.

Final Thoughts

As a leader, you are smart, technically proficient, know your team well, and thus, are confident of making sound decisions. But there’s real value in letting people step forward and make their own choices. Their engagement in decision making improves ownership, accountability and commitment. A psychologically safe environment is the foundation for that engagement.

Scrum doesn’t dictate how work should be assigned. But it makes one thing clear:

Teams must self-organize.

If we’re nudging, prompting, or redirecting too often, we may be unintentionally eroding that principle.

Let’s create the space for people to step up, not wait to be told.