A review by stephen_coulon
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth by Amy C. Edmondson

informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

It's Amy Edmondson’s conceptual rundown of the theory of psychological safety as a part of group dynamics in the workplace. The concept is simple enough: the best environment for workplace innovation is one that allows employees to openly share dissenting opinions and is a place where failure is seen as a learning experience rather than a mark of shame. Edmondson does a very good job with sourcing her claims when tracing out the history of the idea – these cites and footnotes aren’t common in these businessy books, and their inclusion gives the experience an academic gloss. It’s also fun reading about the real life corporate failures in companies that notably failed to promote a psychologically safe environment. There’s some schadenfreude there. Typically though in books like these, every bit of situational evidence is cherry picked, the author never really addresses the myriad situations in which her favored approaches might lead to massive failure. Nevertheless the central idea of the book is sound, especially in cooperative team building, though it could be summarized in a pamphlet rather than a book.