The Vulnerability Ladder (One Last Talk)
Build psychological safety in graduated steps — from personal check-ins to One Last Talk.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 80%
Glazer defines psychological safety as 'trust at scale' — the trust two people build, felt across a whole team — and treats vulnerability as a graduated ladder. The 101 level is small: start meetings with a personal high and low from the weekend, professional highs and lows, or 'one thing you screwed up this quarter you'd like back,' which surfaces what's really on people's minds. The 303 level is 'One Last Talk,' where employees, coached in advance, give the deeply personal speech they'd give the day before leaving the world. He warns the advanced exercises require high pre-existing safety and can be hard to put back in the box.
Origin
Glazer ran a One Last Talk session at his annual company retreat, with four employees coached by Philip McKernan (who wrote the book on it), delivering deeply emotional talks. The ripple effect of real personal conversations over the next two days convinced him of its power — but also taught him it was a 303, not a 101, exercise.
Core principles
- 01Psychological safety is trust at scale — the trust two people build, felt across a whole team.
- 02Vulnerability is graduated: start at the 101 level, not the advanced level.
- 03Small personal check-ins in meetings build the foundation for deeper sharing.
- 04Deep vulnerability exercises require pre-existing high psychological safety.
How to run it
- 1
Start with 101 check-ins
Open team calls with a simple personal high and low from the weekend, plus professional high and low, to warm people up and let real issues surface.
Pro tip A quarterly 'one thing you'd like back' question invites honest reflection.
- 2
Actually listen to the signal
When 'how's it going?' surfaces a genuine 'not good,' make space for the personal thing going on rather than reading it as the person being short or aloof.
Pro tip That personal disclosure is often what the whole check-in should be about that day.
- 3
Build safety before going deep
Only move toward advanced vulnerability once the team has a high degree of psychological safety established through the smaller practices.
Watch out Attempting deep vulnerability as a first step, without safety, will backfire.
- 4
Run One Last Talk carefully
For the advanced 303 exercise, have participants coached in advance to give the deeply personal talk they'd give before leaving the world, in front of the team.
Pro tip Bring in an experienced coach; don't improvise this.
Watch out It's hard to put the genie back in the box — be ready for the emotional aftermath.
In the wild
Four employees, coached by Philip McKernan, gave One Last Talks at the annual company event — one about carrying the BRCA gene, one about coming out, one about losing family young. There wasn't a dry eye, and over the next two days people who'd worked together for five years started having real personal conversations for the first time.
→ People felt seen and heard and the whole company learned it was okay to talk about these things — though Glazer notes it stirred up more than they were prepared to handle.
The host described her company's daily team huddles that open with a personal high, a recognition, or a success story to warm people up and get them talking.
→ It creates the low-stakes 101-level openness that builds toward deeper trust over time.
Common mistakes
Starting at 303
Attempting deep vulnerability exercises before building psychological safety is a first-step mistake that can backfire badly.
Not planning for the aftermath
Deep sharing surfaces heavy material that's hard to put back in the box, so leaders must be ready to support people afterward.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders deliberately building psychological safety and openness into their team culture over time.
Not ideal for
New or low-trust teams attempting advanced vulnerability exercises before the foundation exists.
From the transcript
“psychological safety what is that... it's like trust at scale”
“this is 303 in the vulnerability world not 101”
“we had a hard time putting the genie back in the box at some point”
From the episode
Robert Glazer: How to Build a Winning Team and Culture
Robert Glazer