Watch: ‘System Overload’ with Michael Kassan and Amy C. Edmondson

Watch the broadcast replay below—and follow the conversation on LinkedIn. Welcome to System Overload, a streamed video segment focusing on the issues of the day. In the third episode of “System Overload: How Change Happens,” host Kai D. Wright brings together two top business strategists—Michael Kassan and Amy C. Edmondson—to discuss how to navigate change related to leadership and organization design, to accomplish tangible progress with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Kassan, founder and CEO of MediaLink, a 20-year-old strategic advisory firm to media companies, agencies and brands, joins Edmondson, a long-time professor at Harvard Business School, in sharing lessons from their careers related to change management: how leaders can overcome fear and comfort; ways to manage psychological safety and teaming; how to navigate failure by shifting mindset from “playing not to lose” to “playing to win”; and the power of a creating a blame-free culture. Before founding MediaLink in 2003, Kassan was vice chairman, president and CEO of Initiative Media Worldwide. The iHeartMedia podcast host and Whitney Museum board member has been recognized for his leadership and impact by various publications. He currently serves as chair of the UJA-New York Marketing Communications Committee and is a board member of the American Advertising Federation, the Ad Council, the Paley Center for Media, Project Healthy Minds and Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. Edmondson, who coined the term “psychological safety”—and whose work makes her one of the top contributors to Harvard Business Review—shares strategic frameworks and lessons from her research and many books. Since its debut over a decade ago, psychological safety has grown exponentially in search, leadership training programs and social conversation; Edmondson breaks down why change creates vulnerability and how there’s a strategic way to fail forward fast by understanding how to constructively analyze the source of failure. Previewing her upcoming book, “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well” (Atria, 2023), she sets the standard for what she calls “intelligent failures” marked by four common elements: exploring new territory; being hypothesis-driven; searching for an opportunity; and being as small of a bet as possible. Kassan's podcast—“Good Company with Michael Kassan”—is available on the iHeart app, Apple Podcasts and other podcast platforms. More resources for change management can be found at AmyCEdmondson.com. Edmondson's foreword in “Certain Uncertainty: Leading with Agility and Resilience in an Unpredictable World” (Wiley, 2023) features op-eds from the Thinkers50 community of global business scholars, researchers and advisors. Edmondson's earlier works include “The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth” (Wiley, 2018) and “Teaming: How Organizations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy” (Jossey-Bass, 2012).

Watch: ‘System Overload’ with Michael Kassan and Amy C. Edmondson

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