Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2018
  • Chapter
  • How Could this Happen? Managing Errors in Organizations

The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management

By: Amy C. Edmondson and Paul Verdin
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

Despite discussion in the management literature about agile organizations or learning organizations, many large organizations are top-down, slow to change, and fraught with obstacles to learning. We describe “strategy-as-learning” to contrast with the traditional concept of “strategy-as-planning.” Practicing the work of organizational strategy as a learning process implies eschewing a set of firm decisions and preconceived courses of action. Instead, strategy formulation and execution develop from setting a direction and posing a set of questions to be defined, refined, and iteratively answered. Strategy-making is thus about developing and advancing hypotheses to be tested. In this context, psychological safety plays a crucial role in shaping the quality of strategy-as-learning, as psychological safety enables speaking up, error reporting, dissenting, and candidly discussing risks. Without these behaviors, especially at the executive levels, organizations are at risk of strategic failures that could have been avoided.

Keywords

Strategy; Learning; Safety; Organizational Culture; Performance Consistency

Citation

Edmondson, Amy C., and Paul Verdin. "The Strategic Imperative of Psychological Safety and Organizational Error Management." In How Could this Happen? Managing Errors in Organizations, edited by Jan U. Hagen. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

Amy C. Edmondson

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 7 Mar 2022
    • Faculty Research

    How to Let Go of Perfectionism

    By: Amy C. Edmondson
    • 24 Feb 2022
    • Faculty Research

    The Fearless ICU

    By: Amy C. Edmondson
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Exploring the Relationship between Team Diversity, Psychological Safety and Team Performance: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Drug Development

    By: Henrik Bresman and Amy C. Edmondson
More from the Authors
  • How to Let Go of Perfectionism By: Amy C. Edmondson
  • The Fearless ICU By: Amy C. Edmondson
  • Exploring the Relationship between Team Diversity, Psychological Safety and Team Performance: Evidence from Pharmaceutical Drug Development By: Henrik Bresman and Amy C. Edmondson
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College