The Bregman Leadership Podcast
Episode 143

Amy Edmondson

The Fearless Organization

Can we create safety in our organization? Harvard professor Amy Edmondson says it’s her aspiration to remove the need for excessive courage in the workplace. She returns to the podcast to discuss psychological safety and her newest book, The Fearless Organization. Discover the kinds of questions leaders should be asking, how middle managers can create “pockets” of learning, and three things leaders can do to encourage psychological safety in their organization.

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“A question is a sign of respect.” @AmyCEdmondson on psychological safety in organizations, and removing need for excessive courage Bregman Leadership #Podcast

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About

Book: The Fearless Organization
Bio: 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.

Comments

  1. Sunil Gamage says:

    I listen to the entire podcast, and it is truly innovative to me as I am in healthcare. Respected professionals discussion did discussed many areas of psychological safety issues in my work has surfaced and identified by your professional analysis. I’ve found out when there are psychological safety pockets are in place at the workplace; what I have observed is individual discretionary energy and innovation begin to work and improvement happen. If one of the professionals could bring more analysis into this area appreciated with much gratitude.
    Thank You
    Sunil Gamage RPhT

  2. Lydia Kan says:

    Amy Edmondson’s work is fundamental within high performing cultures. Feedback for Peter Bregman: It sounded like you have not read Edmondson’s work – quite a few of your questions came across uninformed. And a few times it seemed that you were not listening deeply.

  3. Ed Schein says:

    I fully support the need to find ways to increase psychological safety and Amy’s work is an important adjunct to the concept of Humble Leadership that my son Peter and I published in 2018 and argues that safety comes with building more personal (less bureaucratic, transactional) relationships based on the important presumption that profession distance is dysfunctional in today’s organizations. Unfortunately the culture of management still adheres to the obsolete assumption that psychological, professional distance is necessary and desirable.

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