Build Psychological Safety in Your Organization

Learning from Amy Edmonson’s Fearless Organization

In today’s business world, uncertainty and change are constant. To thrive in this environment, organizations must be fearless. In The Fearless Organization, Amy C. Edmondson discusses what it takes to create and maintain an agile organization. Fearless is apt because it isn’t about lowering standards. According to Edmondson, a fearless organization has three key elements: trust, learning agility, and leadership. This blog post will explore how you can create a fearlessly agile organization in your own busincritical!

Edmonson found two factors are balanced for high-performing teams: Psychological Safety and Motivation & Accountability. These create cultures based on how employees respond to leaders and the organization.

Build Trust

Trust is the key element of a fearless organization. It is essential for creating an environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks, speaking out and trying new things. According to Edmondson, there are four main ways to build trust in an organization.

1. Establish clear norms and expectations.

2. Encourage open communication. – “A culture of silence is a dangerous thing.“

3. Promote a culture where you can be yourself at work.

4. Support employees when they make mistakes.

Develop A Learning Culture

Another key element of a fearless organization is learning agility. To stay ahead of the competition, organizations must be able to learn quickly and adapt to change. There are four main ways to foster learning agility in an organization:

1. Encourage employees to experiment and take risks.

2. Utilize open collaboration and knowledge sharing.

3. Promote a learning culture. – This inspires creativity and innovation.

4. Support employees when they make mistakes.

Inspire Safety With Your Presence & Relationships

The final key element of a fearless organization is being a leader who inspires psychological safety. The leader’s presence is the most important factor in creating an environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks and trying new things. Try incorporating these in meetings that you lead:

1. Express Appreciation

2. Listen without judgment or defensiveness

3. Reframe failure openly

4. Feedforward learning and expectations

5. Establish clear procedures and processes

6. Posture to support and help employees

Amy Edmondson’s book The Fearless Organization explores what it takes to create an organization that is agile and able to adapt to change. The key elements are trust, learning agility, and leadership.