Legislative Opportunities to Advance Human-Centered Leadership
While the field of Human‑Centered Leadership is still emerging, there is already meaningful potential for policy innovation. To date, the concept has generated bipartisan interest, broad support, and no organized pushback. Below are several legislative ideas that have surfaced as promising avenues for change. These are not exhaustive; they’re starting points for policymakers, funders, and institutional leaders who want to strengthen workplaces, improve outcomes, and invest in people.
*If invited, Humans First Productions policy and practice experts are happy to provide technical assistance or draft sample language to help move any of these ideas forward.
The OSHA Model for Psychological Safety
Like OSHA,the proposed legislation for Corrections would enable an agency to conduct surprise inspections and collect data from the workplace, assessing the level of safety. But instead of focusing on physical safety, this legislation would focus on psychological safety. It would also review data on critical outcomes (i.e. violent incidents, staff turnover, recidivism, etc.).
However, rather than making correctional institutions that don't make the grade pay a fee, the facilities with the lowest scores would trigger a comprehensive support package to help create psychological safety and improve culture.
Additional details: The comprehensive support package would include: 1. Human-Centered Leadership training for senior officials as well as front-line supervisors. 2. HR consultants to help update their systems to focus on hiring supervisors with strong emotional intelligence. 3. Building staff-leadership teams (in some cases, including incarcerated people) that can help shift attitudes from the inside-out. 4. Metrics analysis to show where and how psychological safety is building.
The Workplace Psychological Safety Act in Corrections
In 2025, Rhode Island introduced one of the country’s first attempts to define, measure, and enforce psychological safety in the workplace through the Workplace Psychological Safety Act (RI S0959). The legislation outlined clear definitions of workplace bullying, established an employee’s right to a psychologically safe environment, and required employers to take meaningful steps to prevent and address harmful leadership behaviors.
Conduct Research on Demonstration Projects
While emotional intelligence and Human‑Centered leadership practices have demonstrated strong outcomes in corporate settings, there is still a notable gap in research within government agencies — especially in corrections. This proposal encourages policymakers to authorize pilot projects inside correctional facilities that focus on developing supervisor emotional intelligence and leadership skills through structures such as classes, mentoring, coaching, and peer support. These pilots would then rigorously assess the impact on critical outcomes like staff turnover, violent incidents, and incarcerated participation in educational programs. If research shows a significant impact, legislators could scale the policy appropriately.
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