The Fear-free Organization

In this book, the authors seek to demonstrate how fear, a powerful emotion that tend to override others, gets in the way of individual performance at work. As a consequence, it also affects organizational performance negatively, and it especially damps down efforts in implementing change. One of the questions they are trying to answer is how we manage and lead in such a way as NOT to induce fear?
While reading this book, I had the following questions in mind:
 Why do we need a fear-free organization?
 Why does fear matter?
 How do we control fear or manage its impacts?
 What roles do leaders play in organizations?
 How do we create and maintain organizations where individuals thrive?
 How de we create and maintain organizations that perform well and who can adapt to changes in market conditions without deleterious effects on individuals?
Given the often difficult conditions in which organizations must carry out business and the need to manage ever-accelerating change (or so it often appears to individuals within organizations), it is essential to understand the underlying mechanisms that influence behaviors and relationships in order to foster the most fruitful ones.
The authors look at the neurobiological foundations of emotions, the self and the ability to learn. As an opposite of fear, trust generates more energy and leads to more positive results. Because fear is linked with survival and because the brain associates change with a threat to stability, we can conclude that human beings are hard-wired to resist change and to fight for the maintenance of status quo. The authors suggest means to create a context where fear is mastered in order to attain desired change.