Amy Edmondson: Creating Psychological Safety at Work

When Google embarked on an extensive study to understand what makes for a high-performing team, it was Amy Edmondson’s research on “psychological safety” that became the foundation of the company’s findings. Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor and organizational behavior expert, joins the podcast to talk about her latest book, The Fearless Organization. She says that “psychological safety describes a climate at work where one believes that you can freely speak up with any idea, concern, question, even mistakes.” It’s “a sense of permission for candor.” She explains the benefits of creating psychological safety in the workplace and why it’s essential for learning, innovation, and growth in the knowledge economy.
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[ThirdLawPair]

It's fascinating the way she describes curiosity. If I hear someone say something that I do not respect, the strongest reaction I can have is to lose curiosity for them and their ideas.

[Paul]

At 26:20, it's interesting that after asking a question about gender differences -- which almost always put women at a disadvantage in the workplace -- the interviewer stops listening to Dr. Edmonson's response and starts a silly, distracting nonverbal interaction with an audience member. The look of irritation on her face, though momentary, is unmistakable. Would he have dared do that with a male guest of similar status? It doesn't make him a villain. But, as she points out earlier in the video, our task is to build self awareness of our impact.

[marthaclarke]

Great interview. Interestingly, the recording starkly highlights Amy’s point that women are less likely to speak up even when they have something useful to say. Not one woman asked a question,

[carelvanderlippe]

A main message I take from this interesting interview is: being nice is not a profession

[danmosley]

9:20 "Make it discussable." She is speaking as an authority when she is merely looking through the window and talking about what she is seeing. Take the Toyota example when the senior person expressed a level of dialogue to help free the manager to open up to discuss problems they could help him with. The senior person abandoned his hierarchy authority of power and acted in a peer to peer manner. "Make it discussable" is a command and control approach. The senior person acted heterarchically in a peer to peer fashion.

[olafhermans]

The problem is that most of what she says is correct AND implemented already. As the problem keeps growing we may wish to consider a complete different complementary view

[saeedeh]

the interviewers does not fit the context

[nandinidash]

Teamwork can be used to build a team or harm others using junk team spirit.