It depends on how you define psychological safety. If you define it as making things comfortable or easy or secure for people, then yes, you can have too much psychological safety.

I define psychological safety as simply a place where people can be honest.

Honesty means that you can speak accurately about work progress, challenges, and mistakes without hiding or distorting the facts. It means that you can be upfront about your emotions without blame or intimidation. Honesty means owning mistakes, admitting when something goes wrong and taking responsibility for your part. It means being transparent, sharing relevant information rather than withholding it to gain advantage. It means being open to new ideas and suggestions, and challenging outdated processes. Honesty is integrity in action: honoring your agreements, avoiding shortcuts that compromise ethics, and not lying. It means giving credit where credit is due and not stealing the credit for other’s work – or stealing anything from another person for that matter. Honesty often means giving difficult feedback or disagreeing in a way that builds rather than tears down.

You can’t have too much of any of this. Let’s keep working to build psychologically safe places to live and work.