7 insights from The Fearless Organisation
During my Master’s in Coaching & Behaviour Change at Henley Business School , I immersed myself in The Fearless Organisation by Amy Edmondson. I read it cover to cover on my iPad and listened to it repeatedly on Audible - often while cutting the lawn (I know!), driving, in the gym, walking or running.
Like a great film, each revisit reveals new insights. Alongside this, I explored over 60 research papers on psychological safety, dating back to the 1950s. Edmondson’s work stands out as a cornerstone in understanding how psychological safety impacts leadership, performance, culture, critically how to measure it, and manages expectations that cultivating it is not linear, it’s not an A to B journey, but one that needs constant work.
Key Insight? If you want high performance, better informed decisions, greater innovation and creativity, and an engaged and motivated team, psychological safety isn’t optional - it’s essential.
Here’s what resonated most for me:
Psychological safety is the foundation for high performance, innovation, learning, and engagement, especially in complex, high-stakes environments. When people feel safe to speak up, challenge ideas, and admit mistakes, they and the organisations can thrive.
Silence can be deadly: Edmondson highlights how fear of speaking up - driven by concerns about looking incompetent, looking weak or challenging authority - contributed to major failures, including the 2003 NASA Columbia disaster. When people don’t feel safe, critical information gets buried, teams get complacent with catastrophic consequences, for example loss of life (NASA), the emissions scandal at VW and deceitful cross-selling at Wells Fargo due to leaders setting unrealistic targets which no one felt able to challenge.
Fear hijacks the brain: neuroscience shows that fear shuts down creativity and problem-solving – the amygdala hijack. In contrast, psychological safety enables openness, curiosity, and collaboration. People listen better, contribute more freely, and engage more deeply.
It’s not about being nice: psychological safety isn’t about avoiding conflict or always agreeing. It’s about creating a space where constructive disagreement is welcomed, and mistakes are treated as learning opportunities. Productive conflict becomes a catalyst for growth.
The evidence is compelling: from Google’s Project Aristotle to studies in healthcare and manufacturing, the data consistently shows that psychological safety leads to better outcomes including fewer medical errors, more innovative teams, and stronger employee engagement. If anyone's in doubt or interested - happy to share the list of 60 papers I read :)
Leadership is pivotal: leaders must model vulnerability, invite participation, and respond constructively. Psychological safety starts at the top, but it’s built through everyday interactions (i.e. and it is not linear!). Leaders who listen, acknowledge uncertainty, and reward candidness, create cultures where people feel safe to contribute.
Cultures of fear can mask dysfunction: when everything seems “fine” and everyone appears “aligned,” it may be a sign that people don’t feel safe to speak up. Illusions of harmony often hide deeper issues, it’s what Margaret Heffernan would refer to as ‘wilful blindness’.
This book challenges us to rethink how we lead, how we listen, how we respond in the heat of moment. If you’re serious about building high-performing teams, The Fearless Organization is essential reading.
Let’s stop rewarding silence and start creating environments where every voice matters.
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