The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth

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The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Amy C. Edmondson (Author), Jennifer Jill Araya (Narrator), Gildan Media, LLC (Publisher)

4.6 1,849 ratings

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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.

Listening Length

6 hours and 43 minutes
Author

Amy C. Edmondson
Narrator

Jennifer Jill Araya
Audible release date

April 9, 2019
Language

English
Publisher

Gildan Media, LLC
ASIN

B07Q33FMBY
Version

Unabridged
Program Type

Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	6 hours and 43 minutes
Author	Amy C. Edmondson
Narrator	Jennifer Jill Araya
Audible.com Release Date	April 09, 2019
Publisher	Gildan Media, LLC
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07Q33FMBY
Best Sellers Rank	#24,828 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #38 in Occupational & Organizational Popular Psychology #73 in Organizational Behavior (Audible Books & Originals) #241 in Business Management (Audible Books & Originals)

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4.6 out of 5

1,849 global ratings

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Wally Bock

If you want to drive fear out of your organization, start by buying this book

Reviewed in the United States on February 22, 2022

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In 1986, W. Edwards Deming introduced his “14 Points for Management” in the book, Out of the Crisis. Here is number eight.

“Whether fear of failure, fear of reprisals or fear of management, fear is unhelpful to the success of your business. Drive out fear by encouraging communication, respect and teamwork at all levels of your business.”

That was good advice, but there wasn’t much guidance on how to drive out fear or how your workplace might function when you did. Amy Edmonson’s The Fearless Organization gives you a mental model, so you know what an organization looks like after you follow Dr. Deming’s advice to “Drive out fear.”

I’ve read a lot about “psychological safety” in the past several years, including several articles by Dr. Edmondson. Since she coined the term, many other people have used it. I bought this book to go to the source and find out what Dr. Edmondson had to say.

She describes her goal for the book in the Introduction. She wants to “equip you with some new ideas and practices to make knowledge-intensive organizations work better.” She defines the fearless organization this way.

“The fearless organization is one in which interpersonal fear is minimized so that team and organizational performance can be maximized in a knowledge intensive world.”

The Fearless Organization is divided into three parts. Part I is, “the power of psychological safety.” Chapter two is an excellent summary of the research. If you’re interested in going into more depth about psychological safety, this chapter is worth the price of the book. In addition to this chapter on research, Dr. Edmondson includes detailed notes and references at the end of every chapter. Minor these at your pleasure.

Part II is “Psychological Safety at Work.” Chapters three and four give you real-world examples of organizations without psychological safety. You’ll recognize most of them. Chapters five and six share examples of organizations with psychological safety. You may be surprised at some of them. You will see a strong contrast between the two groups in terms of organizational life and productivity.

Pare III is “Creating a Fearless Organization.” Chapter seven provides a toolkit for leaders. The tools fall into three buckets. They are, setting the stage, inviting participation, and responding productively. If you want to follow Dr. Deming’s advice to drive out fear, here’s how.

Chapter eight is titled, “What Next.” It includes an excellent section on the questions Dr. Edmondson is frequently asked about psychological safety.

This is an excellent book, whether you’re investigating psychological safety as an intellectual exercise or seeking some help in improving psychological safety where you work. The big insight for me was that psychological safety deals with interpersonal fear and is an emergent property of a group. I had the basic concepts, but now I have deeper insights and language to express them.

This is a good, helpful package of important ideas. But they may not seem new to you. You probably know that it’s not a good idea to shoot messengers who bring bad news. You may understand your job as creating an environment where both productivity and morale are high. Don’t pass up this book on that account.

First, no matter how much you know, you can learn something here about psychological safety., Just knowing isn’t enough. As my friend Rod Santomassimo likes to say, “Don’t KID yourself, knowing isn’t doing.” This book can be a powerful tool to improve the work and morale of any team. But that won’t happen if all you do is read about psychological safety.

In a Nutshell

The Fearless Organization demonstrates what psychological safety is, why it’s important, and how to make it happen where you work. If you’re responsible for the performance of the group, put this book on your must-read list.

20 people found this helpful

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Blax Magoo Music

Critical Thinking in the work place

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2023

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Great read, the author gives excellent real world examples of organizations that have adopted the Psychological Safety concept and how it can transform innovation and growth.

Helpful

Good Resource for New Managers

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2020

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Edmondson’s The Fearless Organization provides a useful framework for managers who are interested in promoting psychological safety in their work environments. For more seasoned managers or those with high emotional intelligence, the concepts presented in the book are either elementary or mere common sense. The book includes numerous case studies that depict problems resulting from work environments that are not psychologically safe; several cases even led to death. Fostering collaboration and sharing opinions in the workplace, therefore, are imperative. While these cases generally illustrate the principles well, it would have been helpful to read more examples of psychological safety from traditional industries where creativity is less crucial. Case studies aside, much of the chapters’ content is repetitive and one might simply skip to the end of each chapter and read the useful “takeaways” to get the gist of it.

One refreshing aspect of Edmondson’s framework is that it is backed by 20 years of research in multiple industries. This research shows the importance of psychological safety in the workplace: when employees do not feel enabled or encouraged to speak up with their questions or concerns, it can breed a culture of silence which may go beyond business failure and affect people’s physical and mental health. The book does a good job of highlighting the fact that a lack of psychological safety is not just attributed to poorly performing companies with overly assertive and intimidating managers, but can affect well performing businesses with proven track records and family-oriented cultures. In my own experience, which is paralleled in the book, this lack of psychological safety is derived from a false belief system that management is so good at what they do that employees don't challenge them, resulting in a dangerous silence.

Edmondson offers several useful tools in this book. The first is a survey managers can administer to gauge how psychologically safe their teams feel. Edmondson also includes all of her research references at the end of each chapter, which are helpful for those wanting to learn more about psychological safety and related concepts. The leader’s toolkit and self-assessment can be applied by managers to any interaction with their employees.

If Edmondson’s goal, as she states, is to provide readers with “new ideas and practices to make knowledge-intensive organizations work better,” this book is best poised for the new manager as an introduction to the concepts of psychological safety. One can take away a sense of their own psychological environments and have the tools to ensure a safer workplace. It is probably not enough, however, for someone to merely apply the leader’s toolkit in working with their teams. Managers must build rapport and trust, which takes time, effort and practice. My overall advice to new managers when it comes to psychological safety: read this book as an introduction, use the leadership self-assessment and tool-kit often, and design creative “braintrust-like” activities suitable for team feedback and collaboration. My advice to Edmondson: pull the meat from this book to create an abbreviated handbook that includes the psychological safety survey, leader’s toolkit, and leadership self-assessment, and you’ll have a best-seller.

3 people found this helpful

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Benjamin Ehrlich

Culture: Substance Matters!

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2018

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Not your book if you like culture/leadership books that are:
Easy, obvious, fluff

Your book if you like culture/leadership books that:
Have substance, will challenge you, actually can help you create a great culture

I work in a combination of school and sports settings as a mental performance coach. I find a lot of schools and coaches are drawn to what's easy when it comes to culture. As a result, they reach for the fluff on bookshelves- makes them feel good but doesn't really do anything. This book is not that. It's well researched and well explained. With some effort, you can draw some really great concepts and tangible ideas to help create and work to maintain a great culture wherever you may work. The stories are well told and connect well with the points made. If I had to pick one negative, the book mentions education several times without providing any specific stories from the education world. That said, the lessons learned can clearly be applied to education. It's one of my favorite books I've read on culture/leadership, and I plan on recommending it to whoever will listen. We need more books like this!

44 people found this helpful

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Miles Craig

Required reading

Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2023

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It’s very clearly laid out, there are lots of examples & cases studies, and its invaluable reading on a crucial subject.

One person found this helpful

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D. Danesh

Fear is fostered in orgs far too often

Reviewed in the United States on October 23, 2023

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If you are a leader or an HR practitioner inside any type of organization, you should read this book. Psychological safety is a critical skill for sustainable learning organizations. Period.

One person found this helpful

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SantiP

Cannot find receipt menu to print?

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2024

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Product is good but I could not find any menu to see the receipt and difficult to contact this issue with customer service. Pls help to connect with support team. Thks

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Top reviews from other countries

James

Large font, easy read!

Reviewed in Canada on July 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

Got a steal of a deal on this, great information, easy to read!

One person found this helpful

Mehmet Kocaali

great read with many real cases

Reviewed in Sweden on January 4, 2024

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great read with many real cases from different industries, companies, organizations; enjoyed every page and learned many practical ideas.

Frank Calberg

The fearless organization

Reviewed in Germany on March 15, 2023

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Top takeaways from reading the book:
- Location 350: Psychological safety is a climate in which people are comfortable being and expressing themselves.
- Location 350: When there is psychological safety, people feel they can speak openly about anything without being ignored, blamed and/or humiliated.
- Location 900: Psychological safety is directly tied to the bottom line because people's questions, ideas and observations provide important information about what is going on.
- Location 2700: At the company Bridgewater, there is a transparency library which contains videos of all executive meetings. That strengthens psychological safety.
- Location 3400 and 3700: Invite people to participate. Let people make their own decisions about whether to participate or not. That strengthens psychological safety.
- Location 3900: To strengthen psychological safety, say "I don't know" when you don't know the answer to a question. People gain confidence in you, when you admit you don't know.
- Location 3900: To strengthen psychological safety, ask questions and invite inputs.
- Location 4000: To strengthen psychological safety, express appreciation. Example: Say "thank you for bringing that up."
- Location 4300: To experience psychological safety, act if you have it already.

2 people found this helpful

Sajid

Awesome

Reviewed in India on August 28, 2022

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Psychological safety is one of the most important science for developing employee engagement and performance

Hanna M. Gödel

Modern, Relevant, Crucial

Reviewed in Brazil on October 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

All leadership teams and boars in companies must read this book. It is timely in our current world, assertive for companies' performances and untimely a precise and proven guide for creating a psychological safe environment where teams can thrive and feel happy. Isn't that what we all want for our employees and organizations?

2 people found this helpful

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