Leading with Psychological Safety at a Global CPG in Taiwan

The cultural barrier to psychological safety

In today's global market, psychological safety is universally recognized as a foundation for high-performing, innovative teams. But for multinational corporations operating in Taiwan like Global CPG, importing Western leadership concepts directly can be ineffective.

In Taiwan's deeply ingrained Confucian workplace culture, hierarchy, deference to authority, and mianzi (saving face) actively suppress upward voice and psychological safety. Junior and mid-level employees are often reluctant to challenge authority or share differing opinions, fearing they might disrupt team harmony or damage their social standing. Without deliberate cultural adaptation, standard "speak-up culture" initiatives can fall flat.

Global CPG Taiwan needed an organizational development intervention that didn't just teach the theory of psychological safety, but successfully translated it into actionable, culturally congruent behaviors to improve cross-functional team effectiveness.

A diagnosis-driven intervention

Talent Self partnered with Global CPG Taiwan to design and deliver a multi-phase, multi-session leadership and OD program titled "Leading with Psychological Safety." Rather than deploying an off-the-shelf training event, Talent Self applied a diagnosis-first methodology that bridged Western leadership science with Taiwanese organizational realities — using Amy Edmondson's four-stage Team Psychological Safety Scale (Inclusion, Learner, Contributor, and Challenger safety) as the theoretical anchor.

Senior leaders must be in the room

A pivotal learning came directly from participant feedback: senior leadership must attend the sessions alongside middle managers. In a hierarchical culture, an intervention that assumes a flat organizational structure will underperform unless senior leaders actively model vulnerability and sponsor the behavioral changes.

Global science, Taiwan reality

This engagement illustrates Talent Self's core value proposition: bridging globally benchmarked leadership science with the lived realities of doing business in Taiwan. By respecting cultural dynamics while pushing for adaptive leadership behaviors, Talent Self transformed hierarchical barriers into high-performance team dynamics.