Amy C. Edmondson, PhD

Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, a chair established to support the study of human interactions that lead to the creation of successful enterprises that contribute to the betterment of society.

Edmondson has been recognized by the biannual Thinkers50 global ranking of management thinkers since 2011, and most recently was ranked #1 in 2021; she also received that organization’s Breakthrough Idea Award in 2019, and Talent Award in 2017. She was also named the 2021 Champion of Talent Development by the Association of Talent Development (ATD). She teaches and writes on leadership, teams and organizational learning. Her book, “Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate and Compete in the Knowledge Economy and Teaming to Innovate” (Jossey-Bass, 2012, 2103) explore teamwork in dynamic, unpredictable work environments. Her book, “Building the Future: Big Teaming for Audacious Innovation” (Berrett-Koehler, 2016), reveals the challenges and opportunities of innovation that involves teaming across industry sectors. Her most recent book, “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” (Wiley 2019) is the winner of the Thinkers50 Breakthrough Idea Award and offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy. Amy’s new book, “Right Kind Of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well” provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely, and will be out in September 2023.

Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked on the design and implementation of transformational change in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and her book “A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller” (Birkauser Boston, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a non-technical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organizational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design, all from Harvard University.