Ten Key Takeaways from “The Fearless Organization”

Just being talented is not good enough. Human capacity will fully flourish only in an atmosphere free of fear, in an environment that is psychologically safe.

Professor of Leadership at Harvard, Dr. Amy C. Edmondson, first introduced the idea of psychological safety. She wrote the groundbreaking book “The Fearless Organization” on the topic based on 30 years of research. Some scholars are already calling it a modern masterpiece.

Following are ten takeaways from the book that I felt related to Human-Centered Project Management:

1. Definition: “Psychological safety is broadly defined as a climate in which people are comfortable expressing and being themselves. More specifically, when people have psychological safety at work, they feel comfortable sharing concerns and mistakes without fear of embarrassment or retribution. They are confident they can speak up and won’t be humiliated, ignored, or blamed… In short, psychological safety is a crucial source of value creation in organizations operating in a complex, changing environment.”
2. Knowledge work: “For knowledge work to flourish, the workplace must be one where people feel able to share their knowledge! This means sharing concerns, questions, mistakes, and half-formed ideas.” 
3. Effective Teamwork: “more and more of that teamwork is dynamic – occurring in constantly shifting configurations of people rather than in formal, clearly-bounded teams…But whether you’re teaming with new colleagues all the time or working in a stable team, effective teamwork happens best in a psychologically safe workplace.
4. Fearless Organization: “is not only a better place for employees, it’s also a place where innovation, growth, and performance take hold.”
5. Employee Voice: “With routine, predictable, modular work on the decline, more and more of the tasks that people do require judgment, coping with uncertainty, suggesting new ideas, and coordinating and communicating with others. This means that voice is mission critical.”
6. Communication: “Communication frequency among coworkers also led to psychological safety. In other words, the more we talk to each other, the more comfortable we become doing so.”
7. Leadership: “Leadership at its core is about harnessing others’ efforts to achieve something no one can achieve alone.”
8. Conflict: “Conflict, in the Bridgewater culture, is conducted in the service of finding “what is true and what to do about it.”
9. Uncertainty: “where there is uncertainty or interdependence (or both) combined with a lack of psychological safety comprises a recipe for suboptimal performance.”
10. Culture of Silence: “Low levels of psychological safety can create a culture of silence. They can also create a Cassandra culture – an environment in which speaking up is belittled, and warnings go unheeded.”

Credit Image: Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

References:

1. The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy C. Edmondson