What I learned from the book Fearless Organization
All views, opinions and statements are my own.
I just finished the The Fearless Organization book and timing couldn’t be more appropriate with everything happening around the world.
I was fortunate enough to (coincidently) start reading the book before the events that escalated last weekend (5/30/20) and each page has accompanied me along this mentally excruciating series of events. I’m sickened by the events and how poorly handled the situation has been, but I’ll try to use this post as an instrument of change and share what I learned with you.
The book is centered on creating phycological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation, and growth. Here are my key takeaways:
It all starts with you: actively listening and creating an environment that invites people to speak up, ask questions, and share feedback. Here's a quick guide on how to design powerful questions.
It continues with you: being kind and expressing appreciation, reframing failure as a learning opportunity, and modeling the behavior you want to see.
It ends with you: looking above, down, and across the Org and “creating a pocket of excellence, candor, and learning in your group, no matter what those above you are doing — it may be contagious.” (credit: The Fearless Organization, Chapter 8 "What's Next").
Why “you” and not “them?” Well, it’s “them” too, but as Gandhi famously said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world,” so let’s start small and together shape a better self, team, Org, country, and why not, world — human first, business second.
Cheers, Romulo
Note to the reader: I occasionally write articles on Medium. Here are the links to my most recent two-post series Product Rumble: Part I (Context & Predictions) & Part II (Ninja Moves).
