Teampact was invited by the scientific excellence and well-being initiative of VMI, the scientific staff association of the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich. We were asked to support their idea of holding workshops to promote mental strength and soft skills that are vital to face the challenges of academic life.

Since speaking up – be it in a meeting with professors, industry partners, students, friends or with colleagues – can be difficult, we decided to organize a workshop about psychological safety. Psychological safety is about building an atmosphere where speaking up is easy. Several studies found that psychological safety promotes creativity and change – whether it is in the development of teams, of leaders, of innovations or of organizations.

In our two-hour interactive workshop, the participants experienced the concept through exercises and got to know ways of addressing psychological safety. Finally, in an open discussion we reflected on the practicability of the concept and found situations when it will be applied.

We were happy to support the scientific excellence and well-being initiative with our workshop and we are looking forward to a continued successful cooperation with VMI.