Disengagement Might be the Missing Link to Psychological Safety?

When it comes to teamwork, I believe we should be using the same playbook—aligned and in agreement on our values and rules of engagement and disengagement—but that is the only alignment necessary.

Fabian replied:
“When a workplace team is grounded in shared values and clear rules of engagement, it creates the psychological safety that’s needed to challenge ideas and surface disagreements without it feeling like a threat. That kind of selective alignment is what keeps the core strong while still allowing for growth, adaptation, and even healthy conflict.”

My reply:
Yep, so far we sound aligned. I guess the process of conversation then allows us to go deeper into the details of what values we believe in and how we should engage. However, here is the kicker in my view: it’s how we disengage that most people miss when it comes to psychological safety—and yet I believe that’s the fundamental foundation for how to achieve it.

Take soccer, for example. When a perceived infringement occurs during a tackle, a foul is called, players disengage, and the game resumes with a free kick to the opposing team. In a typical 90-minute match, this happens around 30 times. It’s not considered a failure—just part of keeping the game fair and safe.
I believe similar infringements occur during difficult conversations and disagreements in workplace teams, but we don’t seem to have a fair, real-time mechanism to call these infringements out. They go stoically unaddressed, often festering or escalating over time.

That’s where SpatzAI comes in. It’s a standardized protocol for real-time, structured disengagement. It begins with a verbal caution when a team member perceives a behavioral infringement—something said or done that crosses his or her line. If needed, this can escalate to an official objection via the Spatz Chat app, and ultimately, a formal Stop that triggers a team-assisted AI-powered review. At each level, the aim is not to punish, but to clarify, reflect, and resolve. It introduces a culture where minor fouls are expected, acknowledged, and constructively resolved before they snowball into deeper disputes or conflicts.

In a world where psychological safety is becoming essential but remains hard to operationalize, perhaps the missing link isn’t better engagement—it’s a fair, real-time system for disengagement. That’s what I hope SpatzAI will provide.