Lessons from Amy C. Edmonston

Amy C. Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, has revolutionized our understanding of high-performing teams and organizational culture. Her pioneering work on psychological safety has provided a blueprint for leaders aiming to foster innovation, learning, and growth.

On Psychological Safety

The cornerstone of Edmondson's work, psychological safety is the belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.

"Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes." [1]
"Psychological safety is not about being nice. It's about giving candid feedback, openly admitting mistakes, and learning from each other."
"In a psychologically safe workplace, people are not hindered by interpersonal fear. They feel willing and able to take the inherent interpersonal risks of candor." [2]
"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." [3][4]
"Psychological safety isn't the goal. Psychological safety is the means to the goal and that goal is excellence." [5]
"When a work environment has reasonably high psychological safety, good things happen: mistakes are reported quickly so that prompt corrective action can be taken; seamless coordination across groups or departments is enabled, and potentially game-changing ideas for innovation are shared." [2][6]
"Hierarchy (or, more specifically, the fear it creates when not handled well) reduces psychological safety." [4][6]
"Psychological safety is not a 'nice-to-have.' It's essential to unleashing talent and creating value." [2]
"It takes courage to listen to and accept feedback that's contrary to what you believe to be true of yourself." [7]
"Creating psychological safety is a constant process of smaller and larger corrections that add up to forward progress." [4]

On The Fearless Organization

Edmondson's book, "The Fearless Organization," provides a practical guide for creating a culture of psychological safety.

"A fearless organization is one that actively cultivates an inclusive atmosphere, empowering individuals to speak up and share their insights." [2]
"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][4]
"The traditional culture of 'fitting in' and 'going along' spells doom in the knowledge economy." [8]
"Fear limits our ability for effective thought and action – even for the most talented of employees." [2]
"A culture of silence is a dangerous culture." [9]
"When people speak up, ask questions, debate vigorously, and commit themselves to continuous learning and improvement, good things happen." [9]
"Speaking up is not a natural act in hierarchies. It must be nurtured." [9]
"The Fearless Organization is not only a better place for employees, it's also a place where innovation, growth, and performance take hold." [9]
"Cheating and covering up are natural by-products of a top-down culture that does not accept 'no' or 'it can't be done' for an answer." [3][6]
"High standards in a context where there is uncertainty or interdependence (or both) combined with a lack of psychological safety comprise a recipe for suboptimal performance." [4][10]

On Teaming and Collaboration

Edmondson emphasizes that teaming is a dynamic activity, a verb rather than a noun, crucial for learning and innovation in today's fast-paced world.

"Teaming is the engine of organizational learning." [11]
"Teaming is a verb. It is a dynamic activity, not a bounded, static entity." [12]
"Teaming is the art of communicating and coordinating with people across boundaries of all kinds – expertise, status, and distance, to name the most important." [13]
"Good teams… display synergy. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The players understand that they succeed or fail together—they win or lose as a team." [11]
"Proficient teaming often requires integrating perspectives from a range of disciplines, communicating despite the different mental models that accompany different areas of expertise, and being able to manage the inevitable conflicts that arise when people work together." [14]
"Today's employees, at all levels, spend 50% more time collaborating than they did 20 years ago. Hiring talented individuals is not enough. They have to be able to work well together." [13]
"Teaming depends on honest, direct conversation between individuals, including asking questions, seeking feedback, and discussing errors." [14]
"Teaming calls for developing both affective (feeling) and cognitive (thinking) skills." [12]
"A given project, or any collaborative work, can be framed as a learning opportunity or as mere execution." [11]
"For over a century, we've focused too much on relentless execution and depended too much on fear to get things done. That era is over." [14]

On Leadership and Creating a Learning Culture

Leaders play a pivotal role in fostering psychological safety and a learning mindset within their teams and organizations.

"Leadership at its core is about harnessing others' efforts to achieve something no one can achieve alone." [4]
"If leaders want to unleash individual and collective talent, they must foster a psychologically safe climate where employees feel free to contribute ideas, share information, and report mistakes." [2]
"Leaders who embrace vulnerability and acknowledge their limitations create an environment where team members feel more secure in voicing their ideas and concerns." [2]
"Leaders must be proactive and inviting of voice. You can't just say 'Well gee I'm really eager to hear from people and I'm sure they know that.' You have to be proactive." [1]
"A good boss will elicit information and answers from their expert employees by asking open questions, encouraging participation, and ideally implementing formal structures in which information can be shared." [15]
"Framing the work is not something that leaders do once, and then it's done." [16]
"Humility is the simple recognition that you don't have all the answers, and you certainly don't have a crystal ball. Research shows that when leaders express humility, teams engage in more learning behavior." [13]
"Anyone's voice at any time can be mission critical." [7]
"It's not about right or wrong. It's about what helps you move forward." [10]
"Leaders reframe the work and learn as you go. Invite engagement proactively. Insist on dissent. Equate disagreement with depth." [7]

On Failure and Learning from Mistakes

Edmondson reframes failure not as a sign of incompetence but as a crucial source of learning and innovation.

"Finding out that you are wrong is even more valuable than being right, because you are learning." [3][17]
"If you're not failing, you're not journeying into new territory." [6]
"An intelligent failure is the undesired result of a thoughtful foray into new territory." [18]
"I'd go so far as to say that insisting on high standards without psychological safety is a recipe for failure—and not the good kind." [10]
"The reflex to blame someone, to pin the fault on a single individual or cause, is nearly universal. Unfortunately, it reduces the psychological safety needed to practice the science of failing well." [13]
"Maybe the good teams, I suddenly thought, don't make more mistakes, maybe they report more." [19]
"It's easy and natural to look for single causes and single culprits, but for complex failures this instinct is not only unhelpful, it's inaccurate." [10]
"Am I failing, or am I discovering something new? Do I believe I should have done better—and I'm bad for not having done so—or do I accept what happened and learn as much as I can from it?" [6]
"Successful people fail more." [20]
"Taking the time to learn from what went wrong is often the most cringe-inducing aspect of intelligent failure. Not all of us can remain as cheerful as Thomas Edison. You're not alone if you feel disappointed or embarrassed, and it's easy to want to push those feelings away." [10]

Learn more:

Lessons from Amy C. Edmonston

On Psychological Safety

On The Fearless Organization

On Teaming and Collaboration

On Leadership and Creating a Learning Culture

On Failure and Learning from Mistakes

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