Eileen Fisher is among those leaders who calls herself a “don’t knower.”1 She began her now-celebrated clothing brand in 1984, at the age of 34, when she did not know how to sew and knew little about either fashion or business. Today, as a leader, Fisher models vulnerability and humility, which unsurprisingly helps to create psychological safety in the workplace. […] She speaks honestly about her struggles and fears. Painfully shy when she was younger, she was afraid to go into Bloomingdale’s with her first clothing designs because she was afraid of being rejected. Inspired by the kimonos she’d seen while working as a graphic designer in Japan and with access to one friend’s booth at the Boutique Show—a kind of arts and crafts fair—and another friend’s skill with a sewing machine, Fisher launched her company by designing first four and then eight pieces of clothing for the borrowed booth. On the first go-around she received orders from buyers for $3,000, and for the second show, she was surprised to find buyers lining up to orders totaling $40,000.2
Today, Eileen Fisher, the company, operates nearly 70 retail stores, which generated between $400 and $500 million in revenue in 2016.3 It’s a supplier to many other clothing retailers and has consistently been recognized as one of the best companies to work for. Unlike the businesses featured in Chapter 3 that faced enormous failures, the company has enjoyed continuous growth and thoughtful, productive change, unblemished by financial, legal, or safety failures.
Its management practices and governance structures have created a showcase for psychological safety.
Humble Listening
Fisher calls herself a natural listener, which helps to make ‘not knowing’ a positive trait. When first setting up her company, she found the combination of these two traits to be an advantage. As she says, ‘When you don’t know and you’re really listening intently, people want to help you. They want to share.”4 Evidently, she’s managed to maintain the vulnerability and receptivity of her original “I don’t know,” even as she’s become a seasoned leader of an enduring brand in the fashion industry. One of the outcomes of managing by not knowing is, as Fisher says, that “people feel safe to explore their own ideas instead of feeling like they just need to do what you tell them to do.”5
Eileen Fisher clothing is structured along simple lines and fluid designs. The same could be said for the way the company conducts its meetings. People sit in a circle, with the intention of de-emphasizing hierarchies and instead encouraging what’s called “a leader in every chair.”6 To create the mindfulness and focus conducive to an environment where everyone collaborates and contributes, meetings begin with a minute of silence. Sometimes an object, such as a gourd, is passed from person to person; the idea is the person is allowed and expected to speak when the object is in hand.7 The point is that Fisher, like the other leaders discussed in this chapter, has institutionalized very specific processes that help create psychological safety. […]
Fisher, again: “My inclination is to ask questions, to get the right people in the conversation and let everyone have a voice. The collective and collaborative process produces a lot of energy—it’s a source of creativity and innovation.”8 Interestingly, Fisher, as a clothing designer, is not looking for “right answers” but for the multiplicity of voices that produce a collaborative process and creative energy. She’s framing success as a certain kind of energy rather than an immediate result.
[…] Ultimately, Fisher’s voice has been widely heard (and seen) in the fashion industry because she was willing to take risks, willing to fail. In any creative industry, failure is a fact of life. Most design ideas never come to fruition. Similarly, most film footage hits the cutting room floor, and many financial bets will fail before you hit a winner. Indeed, more and more people in leading companies around the world are embracing the notion of failing well to succeed sooner. But as appealing and logical as the idea of learning from failure may be, the truth is no one really wants to fail.
Excerpted with permission of the publisher, Wiley, from The Fearless Organization by Amy C. Edmondson. Copyright (c) 2019 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
2 Malcolm, J. “Nobody’s Looking At You: Eileen Fisher and the art of understatement.” The New Yorker. September 23, 2013. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/09/23/nobodys-looking-at-you. Accessed June 12, 2018.
3 Fernandez, C. “Eileen Fisher Makes Strides Towards Circularity with ‘Tiny Factory.’” The Business of Fashion. December 6, 2017. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/intelligence/eileen-fisher-makes-strides-towards-circularity-with-tiny-factory. Accessed June 8, 2018.
4 Tenney, M. May 15, 2015. op cit.
5 Ibid.
6 According to Janet Malcolm, Fisher subscribes to the philosophy articulated in a 2010 book called The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair by Ann Linnea and Christina Baldwin (published by Barret-Koehler), which posits circle leadership as both a paradigm shift for group collaboration and a practice that draws upon the circle ‘lineage’ derived from cultures such as Native American and Aboriginal.
7 Malcolm, J. September 23, 2013. op cit.
8 Dunbar, M.F. “Designer Eileen Fisher on how Finding Purpose Changed Her Company.” Conscious Company Media. July 4, 2015. https://consciouscompanymedia.com/sustainable-business/designer-eileen-fisher-on-how-finding-purpose-changed-her-company/ Accessed June 8, 2018.