# Edmondson's Field Book

*Tom Geraghty · Models & Critique, Interpersonal Practice, History & Foundations*

Written on the announcement of Amy Edmondson's Fearless Organization Field Book (Wiley), before publication and before anyone has read it. The argument is that the book matters less for what it will contain than for the gap it steps into. For twenty-five years there has been a division between the research and the practice of psychological safety, and an industry grew in the space between them: surveys promising a single score, leadership checklists, dashboards and diagnostics. The research holds that psychological safety is an emergent property of a group; the industry often sells it as a product a leader can install. Edmondson has pushed back on that reading for years from the researcher's side, and a practitioner-facing field book is her crossing into the practical layer, which is where most people actually meet the concept. The piece then sets out four hopes, each of which is a standing position of this corpus rather than a demand of the book: that it resists the leader-as-hero framing, since safety is built and repaired by everyone in the room even though leaders carry disproportionate weight; that it treats measurement with respect for what measurement cannot do, given the well-worn path from asking how we know it is working to a dashboard that makes things worse; that it addresses power, on the grounds that power gradients are the hardest thing to shift because those standing on them rarely want them dismantled; and that it is honest about the reach of a tool, since an exercise can open a conversation but cannot substitute for the hundred small responses that follow it. The stance throughout is warm about Edmondson and sceptical about the genre. The page is intended to grow: a full review connecting the book into the wider terrain will follow publication.

- **This page:** https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/a-psychological-safety-field-book-is-on-the-way/
- **Read the full article on psychsafety.com:** https://psychsafety.com/a-psychological-safety-field-book-is-on-the-way/
- **Interactive map:** https://explore.psychsafety.com/?node=edmondson-field-book

## Neighbours (10)

- [What is PS?](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/about-psychological-safety.md)
- [PS is Political](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-is-political.md)
- [Top 10 Ways to Foster PS](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/top-10-ways-to-foster-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace.md)
- [Typologies of Power](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/typologies-of-power.md)
- [Collective Responsibility](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/leaders-are-not-solely-responsible-for-psychological-safety.md)
- [Practices that Foster PS](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/practices-that-foster-psychological-safety.md)
- [PS Index Critique](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/the-psychological-safety-index-a-critical-look.md)
- [Psychological Safety Books](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-books.md)
- [Psychological Safety: A Timeline](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-a-timeline.md)
- [Measuring PS: Questions First](https://explore.psychsafety.com/n/psychological-safety-87-measuring-psychological-safety-questions-to-ask-yourself-first.md)