Amy Edmondson

Amy C. Edmondson is a Fellow of the Cutter Business Technology & Digital Transformation Strategies practice. She is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. The Novartis Chair was established to enable the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful business enterprises for the betterment of society. Edmondson’s research examines leadership, learning and innovation in teams and organizations, and has been published in numerous academic and managerial articles. Her emphasis is on teaming – the activities that comprise collaborative work across boundaries – rather than on stable team structures. She is currently studying collaborative innovation in the context of the built environment, with a particular focus on projects developing eco-districts and sustainable cities.

Professor Edmondson teaches MBA and Executive Education courses in leadership, team effectiveness, and organizational learning, and a doctoral course in field research methods. She has served on 26 doctoral committees and is the author of more than 25 Harvard Business School case studies. Her article with Anita Tucker, "Why Hospitals Don't Learn from Failures: Organizational and Psychological Dynamics That Inhibit System Change" received the 2004 Accenture Award for significant contribution to management practice.

Not only do we have to be comfortable not knowing everything, not being right all the time, asking for help, reporting mistakes, but also actually, failing. You've got to be okay with that.