Fearless Organization Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
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.
<p>"... a valuable addition to the popular management literature on teamwork." (<i>Financial Times,</i> Oct 2018)</p>
Conquer the most essential adaptation to the knowledge economy
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. With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent—but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of "fitting in" and "going along" spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical thought, and the interpersonal climate must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Not every idea is good, and yes there are stupid questions, and yes dissent can slow things down, but talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process. People must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions from left field, and brainstorm out loud; it creates a culture in which a minor flub or momentary lapse is no big deal, and where actual mistakes are owned and corrected, and where the next left-field idea could be the next big thing.
This book explores this culture of psychological safety, and provides a blueprint for bringing it to life. The road is sometimes bumpy, but succinct and informative scenario-based explanations provide a clear path forward to constant learning and healthy innovation.
- Explore the link between psychological safety and high performance
- Create a culture where it’s “safe” to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes
- Nurture the level of engagement and candor required in today’s knowledge economy
- Follow a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organization
Shed the "yes-men" approach and step into real performance. Fertilize creativity, clarify goals, achieve accountability, redefine leadership, and much more. The Fearless Organization helps you bring about this most critical transformation.
Introduction xiii
What It Takes to Thrive in a Complex, Uncertain World xiii
Discovery by Mistake xvi
Overview of the Book xviii
Endnotes xxi
PART I The Power of Psychological Safety 1
Chapter 1 The Underpinning 3
Unconscious Calculators 4
Envisioning the Psychologically Safe Workplace 6
An Accidental Discovery 8
Standing on Giants' Shoulders 12
Why Fear Is Not an Effective Motivator 13
What Psychological Safety Is Not 15
Measuring Psychological Safety 19
Psychological Safety Is Not Enough 21
Endnotes 22
Chapter 2 The Paper Trail 25
Not a Perk 26
The Research 29
An Epidemic of Silence 30
A Work Environment that Supports Learning 35
Why Psychological Safety Matters for Performance 39
Psychologically Safe Employees Are Engaged Employees 41
Psychological Safety as the Extra Ingredient 43
Bringing Research to Practice 45
Endnotes 46
PART II Psychological Safety at Work 51
Chapter 3 Avoidable Failure 53
Exacting Standards 54
Stretching the Stretch Goal 60
Fearing the Truth 63
Who Regulates the Regulators? 66
Avoiding Avoidable Failure 68
Adopting an Agile Approach to Strategy 70
Endnotes 72
Chapter 4 Dangerous Silence 77
Failing to Speak Up 78
What Was Not Said 79
Excessive Confidence in Authority 83
A Culture of Silence 86
Silence in the Noisy Age of Social Media 92
Endnotes 97
Chapter 5 The Fearless Workplace 103
Making Candor Real 104
Extreme Candor 109
Be a Don't Knower 113
When Failure Works 116
Caring for Employees 119
Learning from Psychologically Safe Work Environments 123
Endnotes 124
Chapter 6 Safe and Sound 129
Use Your Words 130
One for All and All for One 135
Speaking Up for Worker Safety 138
Transparency by Whiteboard 142
Unleashing Talent 146
Endnotes 147
PART III Creating a Fearless Organization 151
Chapter 7 Making it Happen 153
The Leader's Tool Kit 154
How to Set the Stage for Psychological Safety 158
How to Invite Participation So People Respond 167
How to Respond Productively to Voice – No Matter Its Quality 173
Leadership Self-Assessment 181
Endnotes 183
Chapter 8 What's Next? 187
Continuous Renewal 187
Deliberative Decision-Making 189
Hearing the Sounds of Silence 191
When Humor Isn't Funny 193
Psychological Safety FAQs 195
Tacking Upwind 208
Endnotes 209
Appendix: Variations in survey measures to Illustrate Robustness of Psychological Safety 213
Acknowledgments 217
About the Author 219
Index 221
Praise for the fearless organization
"The Fearless Organization is a modern masterpiece — useful, timeless, and a delight to read. Amy Edmondson's weave of studies, stories, and insights from her decades of research shows why psychological safety is the key ingredient for creating high-performing, humane, and resilient workplaces. This gem is packed with steps that leaders can take so people feel compelled to share mistakes and concerns — confident they won't be humiliated, ignored, or blamed for speaking up."
—Robert Sutton, Stanford Professor and author of national bestsellers including Good Boss, Bad Boss and (with Huggy Rao) Scaling Up Excellence
"Organizations today depend on talent, but there are many reasons that talent alone is not enough. The only way human capacities can truly flourish is in an atmosphere free of fear. Amy Edmondson has devoted 20 years to understanding psychological safety in organizations — and in this timely, important book she shares what she's learned. She identifies the ways fear can stifle creativity and teamwork — and then offers smart, practical advice for overcoming these obstacles and building an organization free of fear. This is a book that every leader should read and heed."
—Daniel H. Pink, author of WHEN and DRIVE
"Before Google discovered it, and before the idea became a mainstream meme, Amy Edmondson discovered something really important about high performing teams: the people in them felt that they could raise difficult, risky, or controversial ideas without the fear of being shut down or punished. She called it 'psychological safety,' and pioneered approaches to making it a reality in hundreds of teams. It is an idea whose time has triumphantly arrived. Edmondson's new book is your guide to it."
—Rita McGrath, Professor, Columbia University, bestselling author, The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business
"The overwhelming message of Amy's book is this: leadership calls us to create workplaces where people feel safe to share ideas and mistakes are embraced as opportunities to learn. Build an organization free of fear and watch remarkable things happen. Not only is it the right thing to do, it's the ultimate competitive advantage!"
—Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller and author of Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family
"The importance of psychological safety in organizational life has been known for a long time, but only now do we have a roadmap of how to get there through this book's thorough analysis of how to build organizations that actually create psychological safety for all employees at all levels, and, thereby, insure higher quality performance, more safety, and, most importantly, more learning. Psychological safety will not only be desirable but absolutely necessary as organizations become more complex and more dependent on the commitment of all their members. This book makes the case through a thorough review of relevant research and illustrates all of its main points through powerful stories from a broad variety of organizations."
—Edgar H. Schein, Professor Emeritus, MIT Sloan School of Management and author with Peter Schein of Humble Leadership: The Power of Relationships, Openness and Trust
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
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.