049: Defining Psychological Safety in the Workplace with Professor Amy Edmondson

In this episode of Let’s Fix Work, I talk with Professor Amy Edmondson from Harvard Business School and author of The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth. HR leaders and executives love this book, and they love Amy for her rigorous take on what it means to create a high performing and humane work environment. Her name and ideas come up in my social circles over and over again. I've come to know of Amy’s work through many women that I admire. And since it’s really important to them, it’s equally important to me.

So if you are interested in psychological safety, inviting participation, and creating a productive workplace of tomorrow, then listen to this week’s episode of Let’s Fix Work.

In this episode you’ll hear:

1. Why organizations are fearful in the workplace today
2. Why people need to understand that our human instincts, and especially our human instincts in hierarchies, are at odds with our organizational goals
3. The definition of psychological safety
4. How we reconcile psychological safety and corporate social responsibility
5. That psychological safety tends to be quite variable across groups in an organization
6. How leaders in the middle have figured out that they want their group, their part of the organization to be engaged, dynamic, energized, and candid
7. People need to feel free to be candid and feel free to offer candid feedback
8. How leaders can create that fearless organization, what it looks like, and some concepts leaders can use
9. Being a leader is so different than it was even 10 years ago, and it requires such an exceptional and extraordinary skill set
10. What the fundamental job of a leader is today

 “How can you create the conditions whereby we can show up and do the work we need to do, but also keep thinking about how will we be doing it better tomorrow?” ~ Professor Amy Edmondson

“Set the stage, invite participation, and respond productively.” ~ Professor Amy Edmondson

Resources from this episode:

Thank you to our sponsor: Ultimatesoftware.com/LFW

Amy at Harvard Business School: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6451

Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amedmondson/

The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety