
LeaderDNA HealthDNA™
LeaderDNA Just Culture & Psychological Safety Assessment™
Surgical Services · Sample Unit (Surgical Services, 24 respondents)
Executive summary
Staff are filtering what they report.
Sample Unit (Surgical Services, 24 respondents) scored 107 out of 175 on the Just Culture Index, placing in the Fragile tier. Staff are filtering what they report. The strongest dimensions are Learning Systems, Fair Response to Error, Speaking Up Safety. The clearest priorities are Leader Response & Follow-Through, Equity of Treatment, Error Reporting. 0 of 7 dimensions fall in the At Risk band.
Recommendation
Staff are filtering what they report. Focus the next 90 days on Leader Response & Follow-Through and Equity of Treatment, which are carrying the most risk in this profile. Reassess against the same dimensions at the end of the cycle.
Your next actions
- 1Assume your event data understates real risk.
- 2Audit how the last ten events were handled and who was disciplined.
- 3Retrain the leadership team on just culture algorithms.
- 4Create an anonymous reporting path immediately.
- 5Re-pulse in 60 days.
Aggregate report. Individual responses are anonymous and are never shown to leaders. Results are released only once the minimum respondent threshold is met.
The profile
Dimension scores
Dimension by dimension
What each score means
Speaking Up Safety
16/25 · SolidWhether staff will raise a concern, including to a physician or leader, without fear.
Next action: Pick one recurring situation where speaking up safety matters most and raise the standard there for 90 days.
Error Reporting
13/25 · DevelopingWhether errors and near misses are entered rather than absorbed quietly.
Next action: Simplify the reporting pathway and time it: if it takes more than three minutes, fix it.
Fair Response to Error
19/25 · SolidWhether the response distinguishes human error, at risk behavior, and reckless behavior.
Next action: Pick one recurring situation where fair response to error matters most and raise the standard there for 90 days.
Leader Response & Follow-Through
11/25 · DevelopingWhether leaders act on what is raised and tell staff what happened.
Next action: Publish a monthly 'you said, we did' summary on the unit.
Learning Systems
21/25 · StrongWhether reviews produce system fixes rather than reminders and re-education.
Next action: Keep learning systems where it is and make it teachable: document what you do and coach one peer through it this quarter.
Respect & Incivility
15/25 · DevelopingFreedom from disrespect, intimidation, and disruptive behavior across disciplines.
Next action: Name the specific behaviors that are out of bounds and enforce them at every level.
Equity of Treatment
12/25 · DevelopingWhether response to error and behavior is consistent across roles, shifts, and identities.
Next action: Audit event responses by role, shift, and tenure and share what you find.
Where you stand
Strengths and priorities
Top strengths
- •Learning Systems: Event reviews change process, not just policy memos.
- •Fair Response to Error: Staff can predict how an error will be handled, and the prediction is fair.
- •Speaking Up Safety: Staff stop the line when something looks wrong, regardless of who is in the room.
Development priorities
- •Leader Response & Follow-Through: Publish a monthly 'you said, we did' summary on the unit.
- •Equity of Treatment: Audit event responses by role, shift, and tenure and share what you find.
- •Error Reporting: Simplify the reporting pathway and time it: if it takes more than three minutes, fix it.
Risk factors
Nothing kills reporting faster than silence after a report.
Inconsistent enforcement is read as favoritism and ends candor.
Underreporting hides the risk that eventually becomes a sentinel event.
What to do about it
Coaching focus and 90-day plan
Coaching recommendations
- •Leader Response & Follow-Through: Close the loop on every report within 14 days, even if the answer is no.
- •Equity of Treatment: Publish the standard and then apply it visibly to the hardest case.
- •Error Reporting: Treat rising report volume as good news publicly for one full quarter.
- •Report unit results back to staff.
- •Publish what happened to the last ten reported events.
- •Work Leader Response & Follow-Through: Close the loop on every report within 14 days, even if the answer is no.
- •Adopt one written just culture decision framework for error response.
- •Train charge staff and leaders in it.
- •Work Equity of Treatment: Publish the standard and then apply it visibly to the hardest case.
- •Track reporting volume as a positive metric.
- •Re-pulse and compare the fear of reporting items.
- •Work Error Reporting: Treat rising report volume as good news publicly for one full quarter.
Closing note
This profile is a snapshot, not a verdict. Work the two lowest dimensions deliberately for one quarter and reassess, the movement will tell you more than the first score did.