Creating Step-Change: How Psychological Safety Fuels Innovation and Impact
With the 2025 edition of Face-2-Face Magazine just dropping, we are thrilled to share an article from your very own SA/NT Chapter colleague, Melissa Ciplys
(Hopefully you saw the F2F Magazine launch EDM! We are thrilled with this year’s edition, and there are a couple more fabulous articles from fellow SA/NT Members … plus over 20 contributions from across Australia, New Zealand and Asia!)
Melissa Ciplys
Director of People & Culture
Scotch College Adelaide (SA)
Innovation isn’t a solo endeavour—it emerges from the messy, dynamic process of human collaboration. When teams come together to tackle challenges, share ideas, and debate solutions, they create what Psychological Safety researcher Timothy Clarke calls “intellectual friction”—the constructive collisions that spark breakthrough thinking.
Yet many professionals, particularly those leading small teams or working across multiple functions, struggle to harness this powerful force. Why? Because intellectual friction inevitably creates social friction—and most of us instinctively avoid it.
Here’s the challenge: innovation requires intellectual friction. It happens when we put forward ideas that don’t align, provide candid feedback, engage in hard-hitting dialogue, and challenge each other’s assumptions. These behaviours create inevitable collisions between people—moments where different perspectives, experiences, and solutions clash.
This collision is the raw material of innovation. Without it, teams fall into groupthink, ideas go unchallenged, and opportunities for step-change impact are missed.
The problem arises when intellectual friction triggers social friction—the fear, defensiveness, and relationship damage that occur when people interpret challenging conversations as personal threats. When team members worry about being embarrassed, excluded, or retaliated against, they self-censor. Innovation suffers.
The Leadership role is to simultaneously increase intellectual friction while decreasing social friction. This delicate balance creates psychological safety—an environment where people feel secure enough to engage in the robust debate essential for breakthrough solutions.
Practical Strategies for Leaders
Increase Intellectual Friction:
- Assign dissent by designating a “devil’s advocate” role in meetings.
- Ask, “If something could go wrong with this plan, what would it be?” to surface concerns.
- Explicitly request opposing viewpoints – Who sees this differently?””- and respond with curiosity.
- Reward attempts at challenging the status quo, not just successful ideas.
Decrease Social Friction:
- Model vulnerability by sharing your own mistakes, uncertainties, and learning curve.
- Critique concepts, not contributors: “Let’s stress-test this approach” vs “This won’t work.”
- State expectations upfront—that you’re looking for good ideas, silly ideas, ‘if there were no barriers’
- Frame dissent as partnership: “Help me understand how we might address…” rather than defensive responses.
- Master non-verbal communication—maintain curiosity in facial expressions and body language.
- Thank people for dissenting views: “I appreciate you pushing back on this.”
Innovation isn’t about having the smartest people in the room—it’s about creating conditions where smart people feel safe enough to collide intellectually while remaining connected socially.
Where could your team achieve breakthrough impact if healthy conflict became your advantage?
3 Key Tips
- Innovation happens where thoughts and ideas collide —not in comfortable consensus
- Talent without the courage to contribute is expensive silence
- Intellectual friction balanced with strong social connection is key to unlocking potential in individuals and teams
Melissa Ciplys
Director of People & Culture
Scotch College Adelaide (SA)
