Fearless Organization

AMY C. EDMONDSON is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Edmondson, recognized by the biannual Thinkers 50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, teaches and writes on leadership, teams and organizational learning. Her articles have been published in Harvard Business Review and California Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and the Academy of Management Journal. She is the author of Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to Innovate from Jossey-Bass.

• Introduction xiiiWhat It Takes to Thrive in a Complex, Uncertain World xiiiDiscovery by Mistake xviOverview of the Book xviiiEndnotes xxiPART I The Power of Psychological Safety 1Chapter 1 The Underpinning 3Unconscious Calculators 4Envisioning the Psychologically Safe Workplace 6An Accidental Discovery 8Standing on Giants' Shoulders 12Why Fear Is Not an Effective Motivator 13What Psychological Safety Is Not 15Measuring Psychological Safety 19Psychological Safety Is Not Enough 21Endnotes 22Chapter 2 The Paper Trail 25Not a Perk 26The Research 29An Epidemic of Silence 30A Work Environment that Supports Learning 35Why Psychological Safety Matters for Performance 39Psychologically Safe Employees Are Engaged Employees 41Psychological Safety as the Extra Ingredient 43Bringing Research to Practice 45Endnotes 46PART II Psychological Safety at Work 51Chapter 3 Avoidable Failure 53Exacting Standards 54Stretching the Stretch Goal 60Fearing the Truth 63Who Regulates the Regulators? 66Avoiding Avoidable Failure 68Adopting an Agile Approach to Strategy 70Endnotes 72Chapter 4 Dangerous Silence 77Failing to Speak Up 78What Was Not Said 79Excessive Confidence in Authority 83A Culture of Silence 86Silence in the Noisy Age of Social Media 92Endnotes 97Chapter 5 The Fearless Workplace 103Making Candor Real 104Extreme Candor 109Be a Don't Knower 113When Failure Works 116Caring for Employees 119Learning from Psychologically Safe Work Environments 123Endnotes 124Chapter 6 Safe and Sound 129Use Your Words 130One for All and All for One 135Speaking Up for Worker Safety 138Transparency by Whiteboard 142Unleashing Talent 146Endnotes 147PART III Creating a Fearless Organization 151Chapter 7 Making it Happen 153The Leader's Tool Kit 154How to Set the Stage for Psychological Safety 158How to Invite Participation So People Respond 167How to Respond Productively to Voice – No Matter Its Quality 173Leadership Self-Assessment 181Endnotes 183Chapter 8 What's Next? 187Continuous Renewal 187Deliberative Decision-Making 189Hearing the Sounds of Silence 191When Humor Isn't Funny 193Psychological Safety FAQs 195Tacking Upwind 208Endnotes 209Appendix: Variations in survey measures to Illustrate Robustness of Psychological Safety 213Acknowledgments 217About the Author 219Index 221

"... a valuable addition to the popular management literature on teamwork." (Financial Times, Oct 2018)