Allessandria Polizzi

Presentation: Creating a Psychological Health & Safety Plan for Your Projects

Abstract: In 2015, Google and Re:Work produced results from their 2-year study of what makes teams successful. They identified Psychological Safety as the most critical differentiator in high performing teams. Beyond this research, many academic studies have shown a direct correlation between fostering psychological safety and innovation, worker commitment, and team effectiveness. In fact, psychological safety is so critical to future organizational success that the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has produced the first standards and guidelines for managing psychosocial risks in the workplace in June of this year. The ISO 45003, which connects to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, addresses the many areas that can impact a worker’s psychological health, including ineffective communication, excessive pressure, poor leadership and organizational culture.

In this session, we will go through the 3 pillars of psychological health and safety you can apply to your project plans to support innovation, build resiliency, and overcome barriers. As a result, you will learn:

  • the fundamentals of psychological safety and why it matters
  • the 3 pillars of psychological health & safety
  • how to apply this to your project planning approaches

PMI Talent Triangle: Power Skills


Biography: Named a top 100 HR Professional of 2020, Dr. Allessandria Polizzi has 20 years of experience leading teams across multiple industries to unlock the potential in people and help organizations thrive. Following recovery from burnout and a depression diagnosis in 2021, Dr. Polizzi rebooted her consulting practice, Verdant Consulting, with a renewed focus on implementing the latest scientific resiliency, burnout prevention and psychological safety research to help people, teams and organizations learn practical, simple skills that will help them flourish. She offers training programs and organizational consulting services designed around neuroscience, cognitive behavior theory, and the ISO 45003 standards, is co-Founder of the Kite HR wellbeing app for HR professionals, and shares of-the-moment discoveries on all of these topics via the Be Verdant podcast.