The Fearless Organization

Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Narrated by: Jennifer Jill Araya

The Fearless Organization 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 audiobook 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.

©2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (P)2019 Gildan Media, LLC

Good one, worth listening

However, there were too much emphasis on psychological safety benefits and why it matters.

Sometimes dense, great "how" and "why" answers

the placement of the pragmatic recommendations toward the end is probably necessary since it requires new context for otherwise familiar stories. it does put the reader at risk of dropping off, maybe because some of the nuances between case studies seem small enough that it starts to feel repetitive. stick around for the end though- it's worth it.

Psycological safety is the path to a fearless org.

This author gave one of my favorite presentations during last year's Global Leadership Summit, so I was excited to pick up this book and learn about psychological safety. Our world has been filled with fear lately, and some of that fear is ingrained in our organizations. We fear speaking up when we have ideas or questions. Fear keeps us from being our best. The book is broken into three parts. In part one, Edmonson talks about the power of psychological safety – what is it, and how do you measure and observe it? She talks about how things are in our VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) world and how having the safety to speak up and lead from a place of honesty, integrity, and vulnerability allows us to grow. In Part two, Edmonson discusses psychological safety at work. First, she gives case studies of companies that ended up causing big problems because they had cultures of low psychological safety – Volkswagen, Wells Fargo, FED, and Nokia. Each of these organizations failed to be safe and they ended up in big trouble. One contributing factor is dangerous silence – no one was ever fired for being silent. But silence and inaction lead to disasters like Chornobyl. So what is it like to have a fearless workplace? Edmonson gives the example of the cockpit communication and environment when Capt. Sully safely landed his A320 in the Hudson. The flight crew worked together to quickly analyze their limited options, to put the right person in control, and they saved 155 souls. Another good example is Pixar. By giving candid and tough feedback early in the filmmaking process, the team makes their movies great. In part three, Edmonson works through creating a fearless organization. She describes setting the stage for safety. Talking about it in our organizations, then inviting others to participate in the process. Getting real feedback sometimes takes asking better questions. And then leaders must, actually respond positively. They must thank people for bringing hard truths to light and they must do something about those hard truths like sanction violations and correct problems. Finally, Edmonson talks about how building safety takes a gradual approach. It doesn’t happen immediately. To build psychological safety leaders must always be improving and must lead by example.

This book is for leaders wanting to create better places to work for their people.

Good story with clear handles and examples

Clear and sensible theory on creating a work environment where people feel safe enough to learn and grow, both individually and at the overarching company level. For anyone who’s worked in teams of any size, there will be clear handles allowing you to enhance or at least reflect on past, current and hopefully future situations.

Narration was clear, lively and a nice 1.0x pace for me personally.

Great read for any organization leader

Very helpful for HR and Organization leaders looking for the science and “case for change” for Psychological Safety.

Informative

Great look at psychological safety, giving examples to explain the key points. Helpful for improving an organization, no matter what your role within the organization is.

Psychological safety very well unpacked

Interestingly, many of the examples given are well known, but I had not considered them under the banner of psychological safety. Many great lessons to apply immediately around openness of communication, being authentic, listening effectively, leading participatively and failing fast.

Convincing about why, wished for more hows

Easy to listen at 1.2x, narrator speaks very clearly. Some good recent case studies, positive and negative examples, regarding fearless organizations. It also had some good case studies for how companies got there (and/or lost their way). As a listener without great authority, I felt like I didn't have a lot of practical examples of how to recognize fear, and help deal with it.

How are you playing?

Are you playing NOT to loose or playing to win? This question changed my outlook.

To the point

Succinct and to the point. A bit redundant but good use of examples to clarify the issue.