31: “The Fearless Organization: For More Learning, Innovation & Growth” with Harvard’s Amy Edmonson

In this episode I interview Amy Edmonson about psychological safety
in the workplace, why it matters and how to build it. Amy C.
Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at
the Harvard Business School. She teaches and writes on leadership,
teams and organizational learning, and is the author of more than
70 academic articles. Her most recent book, “The Fearless
Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for
Learning, Innovation, and Growth”offers practical guidance for
teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern
economy. Her prior books, Teaming: How Organizations Learn,
Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to
Innovate (Jossey-Bass, 2012, 2103) and Extreme Teaming (Emerald,
2018) explore teamwork in dynamic, unpredictable work environments.
Edmondson has been ranked by the biannual Thinkers50 global list of
top management thinkers since 2011 and selected as the #1 most
influential thinker in Human Resources by HR Magazine in 2019.
Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos
River Learning Centers, where she worked on transformational change
in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief
Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book A
Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster
Fuller (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical
contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her
PhD in organizational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in
engineering and design, all from Harvard University. There are no
perfectly psychologically safe organizations or completely unsafe
ones. It happens more with teams then across organizations which
implies that every manager has the opportunity to create a
psychologically safe environment with passion for the cause,
curiosity, empathy and humility. If you want to learn how to create
a psychologically safe environment for your employees, one that
fosters true “teaming” this episode is for you. Amy’s book is
available on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/1119477247/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541340285&sr=8-1&keywords=the+fearless+organization
And here’s a link to Amy Edmonson’s outstanding to Ted Talk.
https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_edmondson_how_to_turn_a_group_of_strangers_into_a_team/transcript