What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team

What I Learned from Speaking to Amy Edmondson

In 2016 the New York Times printed an article that is still quoted often today. It was about the utilisation of the work of Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor at Harvard Business School, on building highly effective teams.

The study, carried out over 5 years and costing millions of dollars, revealed that the single greatest ingredient in any team is the ability to have and practice Psychological Safety.
 
This article is worth a look and these books below, the original work of Amy Edmondson, will also shed light on this ground breaking concept of psychological safety and how teams form and create the environment and the eco system for effective high performance.

What is it about Psychological Safety and Teaming that builds such effective teams?

Stable teams are increasingly a luxury and Amy Edmondson delivers evidence that the ability to work with and coordinate work with others relies on the foundation of psychologically safe work eco systems.

This would look like

  • Asking questions
  • Being curious
  • Being humble
  • Having a strong purpose
  • A mindset of learning
  • Candour
  • Openness
  • To succeed together not, for me to succeed you must fail
  • Creating spaces to share ideas without fear 

 

And my favourite… 

  • How quickly can you find the unique skills of your teammates

 
There is so much richness in her books and TED talks and now I’m thrilled to share with you two 30 minute episodes of Fast Track where I had the privilege to speak to her and learn some interesting information about the research origins and how Amy feels about the name Psychological Safety.

You can access both episodes via this link: https://link.chtbl.com/FastTrackPodcast