90 Days to Level Up Your Teamwork

About the Author

Nearing graduation from Harvard College more than three decades ago, Amy Edmondson took a leap of faith and wrote a letter to a personal hero, seeking advice about employment. To her surprise, Buckminster Fuller wrote back. His letter arrived barely a week later with far more than advice. The legendary inventor, architect, and futurist offered her a job. Spending the next three years as Fuller’s “chief engineer,” she developed an intense and enduring interest in what leaders and organizations can do to create a better world.

Her book A Fuller Explanation: The Synergetic Geometry of R. Buckminster Fuller (Boston: Birkhauser, 1987) clarifies Fuller’s mathematical contributions for a nontechnical audience. Edmondson received her PhD in organizational behavior, AM in psychology, and AB in engineering and design, all from Harvard University.

Today, as the Novartis professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School, Edmondson studies leaders seeking to make a positive difference in the world through the work they do in organizations of all kinds. The research described in this book captures the central thread that has run through her academic career: creating work environments where people can team up and do their best work.

Amy joined the Harvard Business School faculty in 1996 and has taught courses in leadership, organizational learning, and operations management in the MBA and Executive Education programs. Her writings on organizational learning ...