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The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth Hardcover – November 20, 2018

by Amy C. Edmondson (Author)

4.6 1,856 ratings

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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.

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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

Psychological safety is broadly defined as a climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves.
Highlighted by 2,172 Kindle readers
For knowledge work to flourish, the workplace must be one where people feel able to share their knowledge!
Highlighted by 1,848 Kindle readers
Psychological safety is about candor, about making it possible for productive disagreement and free exchange of ideas.
Highlighted by 1,830 Kindle readers

From the Publisher

psychological safety, the fearless organization book, amy edmondson, workplace innovation

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Written for leaders and teams, The Fearless Organization is a practical guide for creating cultures where knowledge and innovation flourish because people feel safe to contribute their ideas.

While many companies are investing in talent to compete in today's knowledge economy, the best talent is wasted if people are not able to speak up. The human instinct to "fit in" and "go along" works against the continuous flow of new ideas, new solutions, and critical thought necessary for companies to stay innovative. While not every idea will hit a home run, an organization's culture must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Based on Amy Edmondson's 20 years of research, this invaluable book helps companies tackle the people side of the innovation equation to create workplaces that are safe, fearless and empowered to win with unbridled ideas.

The Fearless Organization offers a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety within a team and an organization. It is filled with illustrative scenario-based examples and provides a clear path forward for implementing a culture that thrives on the free expression of ideas and nurturing engagement.

The Fearless Organization can give leaders the confidence they need to unleash individual and collective talent and create the type of work environments that helps everyone succeed and their organizations to thrive.

From the Back Cover

Written for leaders and teams, The Fearless Organization is a practical guide for creating cultures where knowledge and innovation flourish because people feel safe to contribute their ideas.

While many companies are investing in talent to compete in today's knowledge economy, the best talent is wasted if people are not able to speak up. The human instinct to "fit in" and "go along" works against the continuous flow of new ideas, new solutions, and critical thought necessary for companies to stay innovative. While not every idea will hit a home run, an organization's culture must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Based on Amy Edmondson's 20 years of research, this invaluable book helps companies tackle the people side of the innovation equation to create workplaces that are safe, fearless and empowered to win with unbridled ideas.

The Fearless Organization offers a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety within a team and an organization. It is filled with illustrative scenario-based examples and provides a clear path forward for implementing a culture that thrives on the free expression of ideas and nurturing engagement.

The Fearless Organization can give leaders the confidence they need to unleash individual and collective talent and create the type of work environments that helps everyone succeed and their organizations to thrive.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ John Wiley & Sons Inc; 1st edition (November 20, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 233 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1119477247
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1119477242
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #7,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #11 in Human Resources & Personnel Management (Books)
- #102 in Business Management (Books)
- #160 in Leadership & Motivation

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4.6 1,856 ratings

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Amy C. Edmondson

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Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Her work explores teaming – the dynamic forms of collaboration needed in environments characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. She has also studied the role of psychological safety in teamwork and innovation. Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked with founder and CEO Larry Wilson to design change programs in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and innovation in the built environment remains an area of enduring interest and passion.

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Wally Bock

If you want to drive fear out of your organization, start by buying this book

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022

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In 1986, W. Edwards Deming introduced his “14 Points for Management” in the book, Out of the Crisis. Here is number eight.

“Whether fear of failure, fear of reprisals or fear of management, fear is unhelpful to the success of your business. Drive out fear by encouraging communication, respect and teamwork at all levels of your business.”

That was good advice, but there wasn’t much guidance on how to drive out fear or how your workplace might function when you did. Amy Edmonson’s The Fearless Organization gives you a mental model, so you know what an organization looks like after you follow Dr. Deming’s advice to “Drive out fear.”

I’ve read a lot about “psychological safety” in the past several years, including several articles by Dr. Edmondson. Since she coined the term, many other people have used it. I bought this book to go to the source and find out what Dr. Edmondson had to say.

She describes her goal for the book in the Introduction. She wants to “equip you with some new ideas and practices to make knowledge-intensive organizations work better.” She defines the fearless organization this way.

“The fearless organization is one in which interpersonal fear is minimized so that team and organizational performance can be maximized in a knowledge intensive world.”

The Fearless Organization is divided into three parts. Part I is, “the power of psychological safety.” Chapter two is an excellent summary of the research. If you’re interested in going into more depth about psychological safety, this chapter is worth the price of the book. In addition to this chapter on research, Dr. Edmondson includes detailed notes and references at the end of every chapter. Minor these at your pleasure.

Part II is “Psychological Safety at Work.” Chapters three and four give you real-world examples of organizations without psychological safety. You’ll recognize most of them. Chapters five and six share examples of organizations with psychological safety. You may be surprised at some of them. You will see a strong contrast between the two groups in terms of organizational life and productivity.

Pare III is “Creating a Fearless Organization.” Chapter seven provides a toolkit for leaders. The tools fall into three buckets. They are, setting the stage, inviting participation, and responding productively. If you want to follow Dr. Deming’s advice to drive out fear, here’s how.

Chapter eight is titled, “What Next.” It includes an excellent section on the questions Dr. Edmondson is frequently asked about psychological safety.

This is an excellent book, whether you’re investigating psychological safety as an intellectual exercise or seeking some help in improving psychological safety where you work. The big insight for me was that psychological safety deals with interpersonal fear and is an emergent property of a group. I had the basic concepts, but now I have deeper insights and language to express them.

This is a good, helpful package of important ideas. But they may not seem new to you. You probably know that it’s not a good idea to shoot messengers who bring bad news. You may understand your job as creating an environment where both productivity and morale are high. Don’t pass up this book on that account.

First, no matter how much you know, you can learn something here about psychological safety., Just knowing isn’t enough. As my friend Rod Santomassimo likes to say, “Don’t KID yourself, knowing isn’t doing.” This book can be a powerful tool to improve the work and morale of any team. But that won’t happen if all you do is read about psychological safety.

In a Nutshell

The Fearless Organization demonstrates what psychological safety is, why it’s important, and how to make it happen where you work. If you’re responsible for the performance of the group, put this book on your must-read list.

21 people found this helpful

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Blax Magoo Music

Critical Thinking in the work place

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2023

Verified Purchase

Great read, the author gives excellent real world examples of organizations that have adopted the Psychological Safety concept and how it can transform innovation and growth.

Helpful

JR

Good Resource for New Managers

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2020

Verified Purchase

Edmondson’s The Fearless Organization provides a useful framework for managers who are interested in promoting psychological safety in their work environments. For more seasoned managers or those with high emotional intelligence, the concepts presented in the book are either elementary or mere common sense. The book includes numerous case studies that depict problems resulting from work environments that are not psychologically safe; several cases even led to death. Fostering collaboration and sharing opinions in the workplace, therefore, are imperative. While these cases generally illustrate the principles well, it would have been helpful to read more examples of psychological safety from traditional industries where creativity is less crucial. Case studies aside, much of the chapters’ content is repetitive and one might simply skip to the end of each chapter and read the useful “takeaways” to get the gist of it.

One refreshing aspect of Edmondson’s framework is that it is backed by 20 years of research in multiple industries. This research shows the importance of psychological safety in the workplace: when employees do not feel enabled or encouraged to speak up with their questions or concerns, it can breed a culture of silence which may go beyond business failure and affect people’s physical and mental health. The book does a good job of highlighting the fact that a lack of psychological safety is not just attributed to poorly performing companies with overly assertive and intimidating managers, but can affect well performing businesses with proven track records and family-oriented cultures. In my own experience, which is paralleled in the book, this lack of psychological safety is derived from a false belief system that management is so good at what they do that employees don't challenge them, resulting in a dangerous silence.

Edmondson offers several useful tools in this book. The first is a survey managers can administer to gauge how psychologically safe their teams feel. Edmondson also includes all of her research references at the end of each chapter, which are helpful for those wanting to learn more about psychological safety and related concepts. The leader’s toolkit and self-assessment can be applied by managers to any interaction with their employees.

If Edmondson’s goal, as she states, is to provide readers with “new ideas and practices to make knowledge-intensive organizations work better,” this book is best poised for the new manager as an introduction to the concepts of psychological safety. One can take away a sense of their own psychological environments and have the tools to ensure a safer workplace. It is probably not enough, however, for someone to merely apply the leader’s toolkit in working with their teams. Managers must build rapport and trust, which takes time, effort and practice. My overall advice to new managers when it comes to psychological safety: read this book as an introduction, use the leadership self-assessment and tool-kit often, and design creative “braintrust-like” activities suitable for team feedback and collaboration. My advice to Edmondson: pull the meat from this book to create an abbreviated handbook that includes the psychological safety survey, leader’s toolkit, and leadership self-assessment, and you’ll have a best-seller.

3 people found this helpful

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Benjamin Ehrlich

Culture: Substance Matters!

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2018

Verified Purchase

Not your book if you like culture/leadership books that are:
Easy, obvious, fluff

Your book if you like culture/leadership books that:
Have substance, will challenge you, actually can help you create a great culture

I work in a combination of school and sports settings as a mental performance coach. I find a lot of schools and coaches are drawn to what's easy when it comes to culture. As a result, they reach for the fluff on bookshelves- makes them feel good but doesn't really do anything. This book is not that. It's well researched and well explained. With some effort, you can draw some really great concepts and tangible ideas to help create and work to maintain a great culture wherever you may work. The stories are well told and connect well with the points made. If I had to pick one negative, the book mentions education several times without providing any specific stories from the education world. That said, the lessons learned can clearly be applied to education. It's one of my favorite books I've read on culture/leadership, and I plan on recommending it to whoever will listen. We need more books like this!

44 people found this helpful

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Miles Craig

Required reading

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2023

Verified Purchase

It’s very clearly laid out, there are lots of examples & cases studies, and its invaluable reading on a crucial subject.

One person found this helpful

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D. Danesh

Fear is fostered in orgs far too often

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

If you are a leader or an HR practitioner inside any type of organization, you should read this book. Psychological safety is a critical skill for sustainable learning organizations. Period.

One person found this helpful

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SantiP

Cannot find receipt menu to print?

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2024

Verified Purchase

Product is good but I could not find any menu to see the receipt and difficult to contact this issue with customer service. Pls help to connect with support team. Thks

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Top reviews from other countries

James

Large font, easy read!

Reviewed in Canada on July 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

Got a steal of a deal on this, great information, easy to read!

One person found this helpful

Mehmet Kocaali

great read with many real cases

Reviewed in Sweden on January 4, 2024

Verified Purchase

great read with many real cases from different industries, companies, organizations; enjoyed every page and learned many practical ideas.

Frank Calberg

The fearless organization

Reviewed in Germany on March 15, 2023

Verified Purchase

Takeaways from reading the book:

Strengthen psychological safety by respecting yourself and others:
- Location 350: Psychological safety is a climate in which people are comfortable being and expressing themselves.
- Location 2700: At the company Bridgewater, it is not allowed to talk about a person who is not there.
- Location 4100: Make it clear where boundaries are.
- Location 4300: To experience psychological safety, act if you have it already.
- Location 4300: Respect everyone.
- Location 4500: Apologize when you are sorry about something.

Strengthen psychological safety by asking questions and listening:
- Location 3900: Ask questions.
- Location 2200, 2400 and 4300: Listen.
- Location 2250: Causes of the Fukushima disaster are to be found in the Japanese culture: Obedience. Reluctance to question authority. Devotion to "sticking with the program." Groupism. Insularity.
- Location 4600: Workplace psychological safety is lower in high power distance cultures.
- Location 900: Psychological safety is directly tied to the bottom line because people's questions, ideas and observations provide important information about what is going on.

Strengthen psychological safety by talking and increasing transparency:
- Location 2400: Speak up.
- Location 1100: Nurses in Belgian hospitals encouraged each other to talk about errors. This helped them feel psychologically safe. The outcome: The number of errors were reduced.
- Location 350: When there is psychological safety, people do not feel fear or embarrassment sharing mistakes.
- Location 1000: People remain silent because they they feel fear of being labeled negatively, i.e. feel fear of being seen in a bad light.
- Location 1000: People remain silent because they feel fear of damaging relationships, i.e. feel fear of embarrassing or upsetting people.
- Location 1100: People feel safe when they are silent.
- Location 350: In a psychologically safe environment, people feel they can speak openly about anything without being ignored, blamed and/or humiliated.
- Location 2700: At the company Bridgewater, there is a transparency library which contains videos of all executive meetings.
- Location 3450: Communicate calmly and openly.

Strengthen psychological safety by inviting people:
- Location 3400 and 3700: Invite people to participate. Let people make their own decisions about whether to participate or not.
- Location 3900: Invite inputs.

Strengthen psychological safety by learning:
- Location 4300: Show interest in and respect for contributions people make.
- Location 3950: Questions to broaden understanding: What might we be missing? What other ideas could we generate? Who has a different perspective?
- Location 3950: Questions to deepen understanding: What leads you to think so? Can you give me an example?
- Location 700: Psychological safety is about the willingness to engage in productive conflict and learn from different points of view.
- Location 2600 and 3450: Think of making mistakes as being a natural part of a learning process.
- Location 3900: Say "I don't know" when you don't know the answer to a question. People gain confidence in you, when you admit you don't know.

Strengthen psychological safety by thanking and praising people:
- Location 4000: Express appreciation. Example: Thank you for bringing that up.
- Location 4000: Praise people for efforts - regardless of the outcome.

Strengthen psychological safety by helping people:
Location 4100: Offer help when someone comes with bad news.

2 people found this helpful

Sajid

Awesome

Reviewed in India on August 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

Psychological safety is one of the most important science for developing employee engagement and performance

Hanna M. Gödel

Modern, Relevant, Crucial

Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

All leadership teams and boars in companies must read this book. It is timely in our current world, assertive for companies' performances and untimely a precise and proven guide for creating a psychological safe environment where teams can thrive and feel happy. Isn't that what we all want for our employees and organizations?

2 people found this helpful

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