Success is worth celebrating, reviewing and repeating.
When a team does something well, it deserves more than a quick “good job” before everyone moves on. What helped? Who did something that made a difference? What should we carry into next time?
Celebrating the outcome recognises the effort. Reviewing it helps us understand the behaviours, decisions and support that made it possible. That gives us something useful to repeat.
Working in an emergency department has shown me the value of taking a moment after demanding work to talk about how it went. A short review can make space for three simple questions:
- What went well?
- What didn’t go well?
- What can we learn next time?
It’s a short, honest conversation between people who have just worked hard together. I’ve found it makes talking about how the work went feel normal, rather than something that only happens when someone is in trouble.
The “what went well?” question deserves proper attention. If someone communicated clearly, noticed a colleague needed help or raised a concern early, name what they did and why it mattered. That helps people understand their contribution and gives the team a practical example to carry forward.
Most workplaces aren’t emergency departments. A client project, a busy week in a childcare room or the end-of-month accounts carry very different stakes. But the habit travels well: pause, recognise the effort, understand what happened and decide what to carry into the next attempt.
Those moments show you what a team’s culture looks like: how people recognise each other, talk about difficulties and learn together after the work is done.
What does team culture have to do with mental health?
Team culture is the everyday pattern of how people treat each other and how work gets done. It shapes whether people feel able to ask for help, admit a mistake, flag a risk or say their workload isn't working.
That matters for mental health at work. Mental health has many influences, inside and outside work. Harmful working conditions can contribute to psychological injury. Supportive culture matters, but it cannot guarantee wellbeing or replace appropriate care.
Safe Work Australia lists poor support, lack of role clarity, job demands and poor workplace relationships among the psychosocial hazards that can affect people at work. It also notes that these hazards can interact. Its guidance on poor support includes workplace cultures that discourage support, such as highly critical environments. It also says that treating workers' concerns seriously and respectfully helps encourage people to raise them.
This sits close to psychological safety, which is broadly about whether people feel able to take interpersonal risks like raising a concern or admitting an error. Psychological safety and mental health aren't the same thing, but they are connected. I've written more about what psychological safety actually looks like in practice.
The hardest test: when someone says "I got something wrong"
Admitting a mistake is one of the harder things to do at work. People often worry about getting into trouble.
My view is fairly simple. Humans make mistakes. When someone tells me about one, I want to understand what happened and reduce the chance of it happening again. I'll ask what they learned and what they'll do differently next time. People do come to me about a mistake or a risk they've noticed, and I'm comfortable working through it with them.
It's worth being honest about what happens in that moment, though. The person telling you is often worried. And you may have your own first reaction: frustration, concern, or an urge to jump straight to fixing it or working out whose fault it was.
That reaction is normal. It doesn't make you a bad leader. What matters is noticing it, then choosing what you say next. Your response gives people information about whether it's safe to speak up next time.
Suggested wording that can help:
“Thanks for telling me. Let's work out what needs attention now, then understand what happened and what needs to change.”
It thanks the person, deals with what's urgent and commits to learning, in that order.
Learning doesn't mean anything goes
A learning approach doesn't mean every situation has the same consequence. An honest mistake, a problem that keeps recurring and deliberate misconduct each deserve fair consideration of their circumstances. They won't always end the same way.
If there's a live risk or someone has been harmed, deal with immediate safety, escalation and reporting first. A short team review sits alongside formal processes. It doesn't replace them.
No one can promise that speaking up will never have consequences. What a team can offer is a respectful response and a fair process. That can make it much easier for people to speak up early.
A five-minute learning review
You don't need a workshop or a template to start. After a project, a busy week or a task that didn't go to plan, try the same three questions:
- What went well?
- What didn't go well?
- What can we learn for next time?
One way to make the learning stick is to turn it into one thing to repeat or change. Where it helps, agree who will do it and when you'll check whether it worked. Keep it small. The aim is a better next attempt, not more paperwork.
A hypothetical example. A small business finishes a big client project on deadline, and the client is happy. But last-minute changes meant two people worked late three nights in a row.
In a five-minute review, the team might start with what went well: people pitched in and the quality held up. Then what didn't go well: approvals kept shifting late in the week and nobody was sure who had final say. The learning isn't "work harder next time". It's about decision timing. The team agrees that final sign-off happens two days before deadline. One person confirms it with the client. They'll check after the next project whether it helped.
The team examined the decisions and working conditions behind the late changes, then agreed who would do what differently. The review looked at how the work was set up, which is often where useful fixes are found.
Keep the review focused on the work. Nobody should feel pressured to discuss personal distress in front of the group. Offer a private conversation about support if someone needs it.
Good conversations need practical support
A review only means something if follow-through happens. Three habits can help:
- When someone raises a concern, listen, get curious and explain what happens next.
- Ask what's missing, whether that's information, time, staffing, equipment or clarity, and act on what can change.
- When someone does something helpful, like flagging a risk early, name it and say why it mattered: “Raising that on Tuesday gave us time to fix it.”
It's also worth being realistic. A better conversation can't make up forever for a staffing or workload problem that never gets solved. Clear Boundaries makes a useful point here: when workers raise concerns, they're also giving you information about how the work itself is designed and supported, not only asking for individual help.
Safe Work Australia's poor support guidance also suggests regular team meetings to discuss challenges and support needs, including debriefs after emotionally challenging tasks. That isn't far from the kind of review I've described here.
You don't need a title to start
Culture isn't only shaped by managers. All Teams Culture makes the point that leaders set direction and model behaviour, but culture is shaped every day by the actions of everyone in an organisation.
If you don't have formal authority, you can still suggest five minutes after a project. You can ask, "What can we learn for next time?" You can thank a colleague for raising something early. These are small moments, but they add up.
In my last article, I wrote about what a team culture workshop should actually achieve. A workshop can start the change. The habits a team repeats afterwards are what shape the culture.
Start with one
Pick one thing this week. Run a five-minute review after your next project. Or decide now how you'll respond the next time someone says, "I think I got something wrong."
If your team wants to practise these conversations together, that's the work I do, including in my Speak Up, Set Limits, Build Trust workshop. I'd be happy to have a chat about what might help your team.
Frequently asked questions
Can workplace culture affect mental health?
Culture is one of many influences on mental health. How concerns are received, how support is provided and how work is organised can all affect people at work. Safe Work Australia recognises poor support and poor workplace relationships as psychosocial hazards. Harmful working conditions can contribute to psychological injury. Supportive culture matters, but it cannot guarantee wellbeing or replace appropriate care.
How often should a team do a learning review?
There is no fixed rule. A short review can be useful after a project, a significant task or anything that went notably well or badly. Keep it brief enough that people will actually do it, and agree one thing to repeat or change.