Publications

October 19, 2020
Article

Today's Leaders Need Vulnerability, Not Bravado

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

Few myths are as pervasive as the notion that leaders ought to appear tough and confident. Or at least, that was the case prior to the current pandemic, which has exposed the many weaknesses of forceful, dominant leaders and highlighted the superiority of those who... View Details

Keywords: Leadership; Leadership Style

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Oct 2020
Other Presentation

How to Lead in a Crisis

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Humility, transparency and urgency are the keys to successfully steering an organization—big or small—through the challenges that come your way. Leadership expert Amy C. Edmondson provides clear advice and examples to help any leader rise to the occasion. View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; COVID-19; Leadership; Crisis Management

September 2020
Case

Enabling Teamwork at the Cleveland Clinic

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Michaela J. Kerrissey

This case examines efforts to foster teamwork within and across work units in the Cleveland Clinic, a large, distributed healthcare delivery organization. With a long history of valuing teamwork since its founding in 1921, the Clinic had taken dramatic steps to further... View Details

Keywords: Teamwork; Teaming; Health Care; Health Care and Treatment; Groups and Teams; Health Industry; United States

Educators

May 2020
Article

Into the Fray: Adaptive Approaches to Studying Novel Teamwork Forms

By: Michaela Kerrissey, Patricia Satterstrom and Amy C. Edmondson

Novel forms of teamwork—created by rapid change and growing diversity among collaborators—are increasingly common, and they present substantial methodological challenges for research. We highlight two aspects of new team forms that challenge conventional methods.... View Details

Keywords: Team Member Fluidity; Temporary Teams; Knowledge Diversity; Entitativity; Concordance; Methods; Groups and Teams; Problems and Challenges; Research

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30 Apr 2020
Talk

The Psychological Safety Imperative

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Keywords: Psychological Safety

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April 2020
Supplement

Open Innovation at Fujitsu (C)

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Jean-François Harvey

This follow-on case study provides a multi-year update on the achievements of the Open Innovation Gateway (OIG). Over time, OIG honed a process that enabled open innovation. It developed three streams of activities, namely co-creation projects with major customers and... View Details

Keywords: Open Innovation; Inter-organizational Relationships; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Change Management; Relationships; Leadership Development

April 2020
Case

Cockpit Dynamics in Air France 447 and United 232

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Joshua Raymond

This case compares leadership and team dynamics between the cockpit crews in two renowned passenger airline crashes, twenty years apart: Air France 447 in 2009 and United 232 in 1989. The key dimensions of difference across the cases include organization and task... View Details

Keywords: Teams; Team Launch; Crisis Management; Groups and Teams; Leadership; Communication; Air Transportation Industry

Educators

April 23, 2020
Other Article

The Impact of Covid-19 on Psychological Safety in the Workplace (Interview)

By: Amy C. Edmondson

Keywords: Psychological Safety

2020
Chapter

Team Reflexivity

By: Michaéla Schippers, Amy C. Edmondson and Michael A. West

Many teams face the problem of process loss, or suboptimal functioning, with sometimes serious consequences, such as medical errors. Team reflexivity—a deliberate process of discussing team goals, processes, or outcomes—can aid in optimizing team performance. In the... View Details

Keywords: Team Reflexivity; Groups and Teams; Performance Improvement; Information; Goals and Objectives; Learning

Winter 2020
Article

A Noble Purpose Alone Won't Transform Your Company: Leadership Behaviors That Nurture Interpersonal Collaboration Are the True Drivers of Change

By: Robert Cross, Amy C. Edmondson and Wendy Murphy

November 2019
Case

The Genesis Lab at Novartis

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Ranjay Gulati, Patrick J. Healy and Kerry Herman

Novartis' Genesis Labs program, launched in 2016 as part of Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR), hosted pitch competitions where teams of NIBR scientists proposed ideas to explore that aimed to revolutionize drug discovery. The goal was to break down... View Details

Keywords: Drug Discovery; Health Care and Treatment; Research and Development; Innovation and Invention; Programs; Management

Educators

Article

Psychological Safety and Near Miss Events in Radiation Oncology

By: Palak Kundu, Olivia Jung, Kathy Rose, Chonlawan Khaothiemsang, Nzhde Agazaryan, Amy C. Edmondson, Michael L. Steinberg and Ann C. Raldow

Background: Near miss events, defined as harm averted due to chance, are learning opportunities in radiation oncology. Psychological safety is a feature of a learning environment characterized by interpersonal risk taking. We examine the effects of near miss type and... View Details

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May–June 2019
Article

Cross-Silo Leadership

By: Amy C. Edmondson, Tiziana Casciaro and Sujin Jang

Today the most promising innovation and business opportunities require collaboration among functions, offices, and organizations. To realize them, companies must break down silos and get people working together across boundaries. But that’s a challenge for many... View Details

Keywords: Cross-functional Management; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Innovation Leadership; Groups and Teams; Employees; Attitudes

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14 Apr 2019
Interview

How to Build Psychological Safety, with Amy Edmondson

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Dave Stachowiak

Amy Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. She has been recognized by the Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers for many years and was honored with their Talent Award in 2017. Amy is the author of... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Organizational Culture; Groups and Teams; Performance Effectiveness

Spring 2019
Article

Fluid Teams and Knowledge Retrieval: Scaling Service Operations

By: Melissa A. Valentine, Tom Fangyun Tan, Bradley R. Staats and Amy C. Edmondson

To scale service operations requires retrieving knowledge across the organization. However, prior work highlights that individuals on the periphery of organizational knowledge networks may struggle to access useful knowledge at work. A knowledge repository has the... View Details

Keywords: Teaming; Teams; Groups and Teams; Knowledge Management; Service Delivery; Knowledge Use and Leverage

Article

Burnout in Surgery Viewed Through the Lens of Psychological Safety

By: Robert A. Swendiman, Amy C. Edmondson and Najjia N. Mahmoud

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22 Jan 2019
Interview

Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Curt Nickisch

Amy Edmondson, professor at Harvard Business School, first identified the concept of psychological safety in work teams in 1999. Since then, she has observed how companies with a trusting workplace perform better. Psychological safety isn’t about being nice, she says.... View Details

Keywords: Psychological Safety; Trust; Organizational Culture; Performance Effectiveness

Article

From Orientation to Behavior: The Interplay Between Learning Orientation, Open-mindedness, and Psychological Safety in Team Learning

By: Jean-François Harvey, Kevin J. Johnson, Kathryn S. Roloff and Amy C. Edmondson

Do teams with motivation to learn actually engage in the behaviors that produce learning? Though team learning orientation has been found to be positively related to team learning, we know little about how and when it actually fosters team learning. It is obviously not... View Details

Keywords: Emergent States; Goal Orientation; Open-mindedness; Psychological Safety; Team Learning; Teams; Groups and Teams; Learning; Goals and Objectives

Article

Health as a Way of Doing Business

By: Howard Koh, Sara J. Singer and Amy C. Edmondson

For too long, the worlds of business and health have been mired in a checkered, sometimes contentious, history. Millions of deaths worldwide can be attributed to risk factors including tobacco use, alcohol and drug misuse, and suboptimal dietary intake linked to... View Details

Keywords: Health; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Public Opinion