Her new book, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth (2018), offers a practical guide for organizations serious about success in the modern economy.
In the interview, Amy and I discuss:
- How an advice-seeking letter that Amy sent to the iconic American inventor Buckminster Fuller landed her a job as his chief engineer.
- How Amy went from engineering to becoming a business school professor.
- What psychological safety is, and why it’s crucial to creativity and high performance
- What factors set apart organizations that promote psychological safety from those that don’t
- How corporate leaders can foster an environment where employees are willing to openly share their mistakes and failures
- What we can learn from the organizational causes behind the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster, which Amy spent over two years studying
- How teachers can promote psychological safety in the classroom.
Resources mentioned:
Amy Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R Buckminster Fuller
Amy Edmondson, The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation and Growth Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace, TedX