This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“For an organization to truly thrive
in a world where innovation can make the difference between success and
failure, it is not enough to hire smart, motivated people. Knowledgeable, skilled, well-meaning people
cannot always contribute what they know at the critical moment on the job when
it is needed. Sometimes this is because
they’re reluctant to stand out, be wrong, or offend the boss. For knowledge work to flourish, the workplace
must be one where people feel able to share their knowledge!” – Amy C. Edmondson,
Introduction, Page 12-13
“Psychological safety is not immunity from consequence, nor
is it a state of high self-regard. In
psychologically safe workplaces, people know they might fail, they might
receive performance feedback that says they’re not meeting expectations, and
they might lose their jobs due to changes in the industry environment or even
to a lack of competence in their role.
These attributes of the modern workplace are unlikely to disappear
anytime soon. But in a psychologically
safe workplace, people are not hindered by interpersonal fear. They feel willing and able to take the
inherent interpersonal risks of candor.
They fear holding back their full participation more than they
fear sharing a potentially sensitive, threatening, or wrong idea. The fearless organization is one in which
interpersonal fear is minimized so that team and organizational performance can
be maximized in a knowledge intensive world.
It is not one devoid of anxiety about the future!” – Amy C. Edmondson, Introduction,
Page 14
“Although perhaps an extreme case, the fact is that many
managers are sympathetic to the use of power to insist that people achieve
certain goals – offering clear metrics and deadlines. The belief that people may not push
themselves hard enough without a clear understanding of the negative
consequences of failing to do so is widespread and even taken for granted by
many in management roles, along with just as many casual onlookers contemplating
human motivation at work. What many
people do not realize is that motivation by fear is indeed highly effective –
effective at creating the illusion that goals are being achieved. It is not effective in ensuring that people
bring the creativity, good process, and passion needed to accomplish
challenging goals in knowledge-intensive workplaces.” – Amy C. Edmondson,
Chapter 3: Avoidable Failure, Page 71
Is This An Overview?
Organizations that depend on intellectual and collaborative
tasks need people who are willing to share their knowledge and different
views. But individuals can withhold
information when there are costs attached to sharing the information, when the
person who shares the information is punished.
There are managers who think that fear can make people work
harder. A culture of fear is effective
at creating the illusion that goals are achieved, not to actually achieve goals. Fear can create silence in people as people
do not want to get punished. Silence is
costly to organizations, as individuals can withhold information about mistakes
they have made or others are making, and do not share ideas to improve the work
process.
Within psychologically safe organizations, people are not
hindered by interpersonal fear.
Psychologically safe organizations are fearless organizations, as they
create conditions that enable individuals to take the risk in sharing sensitive
or wrong ideas. Individuals want to
speak up, offer ideas, and ask questions when there is psychological
safety.
Psychological safety does not make people immune from
consequences, nor enable an avoidance of conflict. Psychological safety is being able speak
about the conflict to find a resolution.
In organizations that use fear to motivate, less mistakes are reported but
more mistakes are made. In organizations
that enable psychologically safe conditions, more mistakes are reported but
less mistakes are made. When the
mistakes are reported, the mistakes can be corrected.
Caveats?
A complex understanding of what is and is not psychological
safety is shared. The difficulty in
developing a fearless organization comes from individuals having different
values and culture. What someone finds
to be psychologically safe or unsafe, another person can have a different
reaction. As cultures change, what was
considered safe or unsafe changes as well.
Fearless organizations need to find what enables people to share their
different views.
