Building a Fearless Team – a new programme by Amy Edmondson

To succeed in the knowledge economy, companies need to ensure they are tapping the ideas, expertise and passion of every employee. This is quite a challenge when a culture of “fitting in” and “going along with things” prevails. As a result, key information and knowledge is not shared, people don’t learn from their failures and disaster can strike. Of course, not every idea is a good one and, yes, there are stupid questions and dissent can slow things down. But that’s not a reason to silence the collective intelligence.

This programme explains why a climate of psychological safety where people feel comfortable enough to speak their mind, and own and correct their mistakes, is crucial. It explores the benefits of instilling such a climate, in particular in terms of performance, creativity, learning, growth and physical safety. It provides a toolbox for leaders to enable them to initiate and nurture such a culture of candour, engagement, listening, sharing and co-creation.

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. She was recognised by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, and was honoured with the Talent Award in 2017. She teaches and writes on leadership, teaming and organisational learning, and her articles appear in management publications such as “Harvard Business Review” and “California Management Review” as well as in top academic journals.

She is best known for her pioneering work on psychological safety, which has helped spawn a large body of academic research in management, healthcare and education over the past 15 years. Her books include “The Fearless Organization,Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” (Wiley) and “Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy” (Jossey-Bass).

Learn more about Amy C. Edmondson

Discover the programme:

1- What is psychological safety?

2- The value of a culture of candour

3- Why psychological safety leads to sustained performance ?

4- Speaking up for worker safety

5- The dangers of excessive confidence in authority

6- Why avoidable failures happen ?

7- Breaking the culture of silence

8- How to create psychological safety

9- How to set the stage for psychological safety

10- How to invite participation