Pers. & Inst. Dvpt — WHAT IS A FEARLESS ORGANIZATION, AND HOW RELATED IS IT WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY? DETAILS FROM ‘THE CRèME DE LA CRèME’ IN ACADEME

In her article of 26 Nov 2018 titled Make Your Employees Feel Psychologically Safe (see <https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/make-your-employees-psychologically-safe>), Martha Lagace reports having interviewed Harvard University [see Footnote●] Professor Amy Edmondson [see Footnote●●] about her new book The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth whereby ? she [i.e. Amy Edmondson] explains how and why a culture of open candor — and the willingness and courage to speak up — is a strategic asset and can be developed in companies of all sizes. ?

?????[Footnote●:?The expression “the crème de la crème” (see <https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/creme-de-la-creme>) is used in the title of this post/article to designate Harvard University owing to its 2022 ranking as “#1 in Best Global Universities” (see <https://www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/harvard-university-166027>).]

?????[Footnote●●: “Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society” (<https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=6451>, webpage).]

From the above-mentioned article, following is an excerpt containing Martha Lagace’s very first question, with Amy Edmondson’s response to it:

??Martha Lagace: What makes a workplace psychologically safe or not???

??Amy Edmondson: Individuals feel they can speak up, express their concerns, and be heard. This is not to say that people are “nice.” A psychologically safe workplace is one where people are not full of fear, and not trying to cover their tracks to avoid being embarrassed or punished.

?????What I am advocating is candor. Being open. And sometimes that might mean being direct to a fault, knowing that you have a right and a responsibility to ask hard questions about the work: “Is this the right decision? Are we collecting the right data? Do we know the impact this might have on others?”?

?????[…]

?????Without psychological safety, if the boss says, ‘You must hit this target’ but the target is impossible, you can end up with cheating and scandal, which obviously nobody wanted. ?

The complete article can be read in full from <https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/make-your-employees-psychologically-safe>.

Further about the same concepts, reading the LinkedIn post by David McLean What is a fearless organization? It begins with Psychological Safety (“Acknowledgment: original post by?Tiffani Bova, original work by?Amy Edmondson?and visual synopsis by?Tanmay Vora”) available at <https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/davidmcleanatgetkeepgrow_psychologicalsafety-leadership-management-activity-6954401696542314496-zBz3/>, one comes across the following unusual but worth highlighting advice to managers/leaders:

?????? If you are a manager/leader part of your role is to make sure you create an environment in which people feel comfortable sharing their ideas or concerns, or to question the status quo. Then you need to be prepared to listen when your team speaks up to encourage a variety of perspectives, even if the feedback is hard to swallow. ?