People Plus Science

15/09/2026

Psychological Safety - Boards Behaving Badly

I've sat in meetings where "Screw risk and screw the ELT" were used quite vehemently in board meetings. And I've been in others where it didn't need to be said because their decisions said it loudly enough for them.

When directors dismiss legitimate risks because they're inconvenient. When equity partners prioritise short term returns over long term stewardship. When board relationships compromise accountability and transparency - this is the message received "loud and clear" throughout the organisation.

I dont need to bring in any more cliches about fish SO, if your executives are afraid to bring bad news, if your leadership team is exhausted, or if your people have stopped speaking up, don't start by asking what's wrong with the culture (although I applaud that you finally asked the question).

Start by asking what's happening in the boardroom. Are we behaving badly?

13/07/2026

Psychological Safety - When the Board is the Hazard

We spend enormous amounts of time teaching organisations how to identify psychosocial hazards - heavy workloads, poor role clarity, inadequate support , bullying - to name a few.

But what happens when the source of the hazard isn't coming from the frontline?
What happens when the hazard starts in the boardroom?

I'll tell you what happens - whilst everyone is focused on the noise and conflict, unidentified and silenced psychosocial risks are increasing across the frontline and seeping into consumers. And when we have vulnerable consumers (students, elderly, disabled) this is a big problem.

Across Australia, regulators are increasingly intervening where governance dysfunction has escalated beyond poor decision-making into organisational risk.

Recent regulatory interventions across universities and professional bodies and private organisations have highlighted a common theme:

• Board conflict
• Poor governance oversight
• Failure to manage conflicts of interest
• Executive dysfunction
• Psychological harm
• Regulatory intervention

When directors become consumed by conflict, politics, personalities, the consequences are rarely confined to the boardroom. They flow through every layer of the organisation. And we see it as employees stop speaking up, executives become paralysed, accountability is voided, operational risk increases and consumers become exposed. Becausewhilst all this is happening your culture is slowly deteriorating.

By the time regulators arrive, the governance failure has often been years in the making.

The question boards should be asking is: "Could our own behaviours now be creating organisational risk?"

Good governance doesn't simply protect organisations. It protects people.

01/07/2026

Psychosocial Hazards - NSW critical changes for those who operate in NSW

Hooray for NSW - one of the strongest regulations for psychosocial hazards in the workplace commences today - July 1. (Pinch and a punch for the first of the month - probably not a good idea in NSW - just saying).

NSW employers, boards and directors a brief legal interpretation and how to apply this:
"We have an EAP" is now your riskiest sentence. Along with "We don't get complaints", or "Let's just prolong this and see if it goes away" or "well most of the country is non-compliant - so what?".

From 1 July 2026, the Managing Psychosocial Hazards Code of Practice is enforceable in NSW.

If a SafeWork inspector asks why you didn't apply elimination, substitution, or redesign first, "we send a monthly wellness newsletter" is not going to land well. Or "our people got frustrated with so many surveys".

Don't forget non-compliance in # WHS triggers your industry regulations also ( Care, Charities and Not for Profit, Services, # Education and Training, . With avenues such as unions, Fair Work, Discrimination Commission and Fair Work our industry regulators will also be busy.

Source: s.26A WHS Act 2011 (NSW). WHS Regulation 2025 ss.55C–55D. SafeWork NSW.

SafeWork

22/06/2026

compliance with organisations who fail to manage psychosocial hazards which should make boards sit up and pay attention.

Have a scan of the recent interventions and the far reaching consequences of not managing "people risk".

The widening consequences means boards that are focused on their own regulatory changes might miss these ones and lose their licence to operate.

03/03/2026

Board and Team Performance
Even High Performing boards/teams have blind spots. The Best ones design for them.

Read the blog: https://peopleplusscience.com/when-boardrooms-go-quiet-the-cost-of-silence-in-decision-making/

Think its time for a "people audit" of your board, team or organisation? Let's organise a chat.

design

11/02/2026

Change management + Psychosocial Hazards

🧠 Why change fails — and why it quietly becomes a psychosocial hazard.

Most failed change programs don’t fail because people “resist change”.
They fail because the conditions for safe change were never designed.

The Lippitt–Knoster model explains it simply and allows us to easily link it to current Psychosocial Hazards being experienced in the workplace as a result of ongoing change and no learnings from failures nor mitigation of change management risks:

• No vision → confusion and anxiety (Lack of clarity)
• No consensus → conflict and withdrawal (Lack of alignment, purpose and goals)
• No skills → stress, errors, and fear of exposure (Lack of capability, lack of trust)
• No incentives → disengagement and presenteeism (Lack of reward and recognition)
• No resources → overload and burnout - (High job demands, Low leadership and org supports)
• No action plan → repeated false starts and fatigue (Lack of clarity, lack of autonomy)

Now add today’s reality:
➡️ More change
➡️ Faster timelines
➡️ Fewer people risk assessments

The result?
Change itself is a common and undiagnosed psychosocial hazard @ work — driving chronic stress, silence, reduced performance, and increased WHS risk.

Good change management isn’t just a delivery discipline.
It’s a risk control delivered with human care.

Leaders who manage change well:
✔ assess people risk before rollout
✔ reduce uncertainty and role ambiguity
✔ pace change to protect cognitive capacity
✔ equip managers to notice early stress signals

💬 If your organisation is experiencing “change fatigue”, stalled initiatives, or rising psychosocial risk — it’s time to design change with the brain and nervous system in mind.

📩 Talk to us about training, people risk assessments, or end-to-end psychosocial hazard management during change.

Acknowledgement: Thank you to Kraayenbrink for the original image of the matrix -sorry for my circle work.

09/02/2026

🧠 Parents don’t leave worry at the door when they come to work.

For Children’s Mental Health Week (9–15 Feb), it’s worth naming a hidden psychosocial hazard at work: parents carrying concern about their children’s mental health.

The impact is real:
• 68% of working parents worry about their child’s mental health
• 60% say it affects their own mental health
• Nearly half say it impacts their work performance

This is where awareness, empathy, and practical support matter.

The MindForward Alliance has developed a free Parent Toolkit to help parents support children experiencing mental health challenges — and to help workplaces respond better.

👉 Download the toolkit:
https://peopleplusscience.com/working-parents-resources/

While this toolkit isn’t authored by People Plus Science, we’re proud signatories to the Movement for Better Workplaces and encourage employers to actively share and support resources like this.

💬 Want to go further?
We help organisations train leaders, build awareness, and manage psychosocial hazards end-to-end — including those that start outside the workplace.

People Plus Science helps organisations create healthier, high-performing workplaces. The mental health toolkit supports the 68% of working parents worried about their child’s wellbeing with practical, research-backed solutions.