Michaela Kerrissey Speaking Topics

• Teaming with Intention: Strategies to Enhance Effectiveness and Promote Thriving at Work

  Creating a thriving, productive work environment where teams innovate and perform effectively without succumbing to burnout is a challenge for global organizations of all sizes. Harvard professor of management Michaela Kerrissey’s compelling approach to collaboration draws from her extensive experience working with experts around the world to deliver a concrete picture of what’s different in a dynamic and participatory team environment. Her research demonstrates how teams can collaborate effectively, even when spread across geographies or facing complexity and pressure. With a focus on the “4 Ups” model that she developed – Speak Up, Listen Up, Team Up and Level Up – her actionable strategies foster a climate of psychological safety that enhances communication and aligns team efforts with organizational objectives. Participants learn how to cultivate environments where teamwork thrives, innovation flourishes and burnout is systematically addressed, all through intentional practice and structured interaction. Kerrissey’s insights empower leaders to build resilient teams equipped to tackle complex problems and achieve sustained success.

• Empowering Teams Through Psychological Safety

  Psychological safety, the notion that team members can voice ideas and concerns without fear of retribution, is a critical component for team effectiveness across silos, disciplines and geographies. Harvard professor of management Michaela Kerrissey brings organizations actionable insights into creating a workplace where speaking up, listening deeply, collaborating and elevating each other becomes the norm. Drawing from her extensive research and teachings, including her work under psychological safety pioneer Amy Edmondson, Kerrissey reveals why psychological safety is not just a nice-to-have, but a must-have for teams to innovate, solve complex problems and drive peak performance. Equipped with tools that can be immediately put into practice, leaders come away with the foundational principles of psychological safety and practical steps to cultivate it, transforming their teams into dynamic, resilient and highly productive units.

• Solving Complex Challenges with a Joint Problem-Solving Orientation

  In the modern knowledge economy, how can a leader encourage experts to quickly solve problems, even when their goals are not fully aligned? Revealing how to cultivate a collective approach to innovation is the focus of Harvard professor of management Michaela Kerrissey’s work. Her method for orienting a team around joint problem-solving emphasizes how psychological safety and mutual accountability together drive effective team collaboration. In expertise-driven industries, people must be able to both speak up and team up to solve hard problems. An expert on managing experts, Kerrissey’s approach creates an environment where challenges are viewed not as individual hurdles but as collective opportunities, encouraging teams to co-create solutions even when objectives diverge. Her strategy explores how to develop a “we mindset,” where psychological safety and lean thinking merge to empower teams to speak up, share diverse insights and work together seamlessly across boundaries. Incredibly encouraging, Kerrissey equips leaders with actionable insights for cultivating this mindset within their organizations, enhancing their teams’ capacity to innovate and solve problems together, and fostering a culture of shared purpose and resilient, dynamic teamwork.

• How to Make Better Decisions Faster Using Everyone’s Input

  Leaders want to harness the full potential of their teams’ diverse expertise, but when it comes to making decisions, their varied experience can at times inadvertently create an echo chamber. Harvard professor of management Michaela Kerrissey has developed a method for structuring decision-making processes in multidisciplinary teams that allows for collaborative innovation. She addresses the common information effect – where team members prioritize shared knowledge over novel insights – by proposing a methodical approach to information sharing that encourages every member to contribute unique, critical information. This strategy not only mitigates communication pitfalls but also accelerates the path to groundbreaking innovations by leveraging the strength of diversity. Straightforward and direct, Kerrissey’s method equips leaders with actionable steps to foster an environment where decision-making transcends negotiation, transforming it into a joint problem-solving journey. This helps teams navigate complex challenges more efficiently, leading to decisions that reflect a richer spectrum of perspectives and knowledge.

• Cultivating Ideation and Innovation in Diverse Teams

  Sustained innovation requires moving beyond the generation of ideas to ensuring those ideas are voiced, evaluated and collectively nurtured. Showing leaders how to create systems that empower individuals to bring forward their ideas fearlessly is Harvard professor of management Michaela Kerrissey. She identifies the essential role of voice in the ideation process, drawing on compelling evidence that shows how innovative solutions emerge when team members feel encouraged to identify problems and propose new approaches. Her strategies focus on developing an organizational culture where every idea gets the attention it deserves, transforming potential into breakthroughs. Through her research, she demonstrates how to build an environment that supports ideation and innovation, ensuring that creative insights don’t wither away unseen, and are instead explored and expanded upon. Adaptable to organizations of all sizes and industries, Kerrissey’s approach not only accelerates innovation but also fosters a culture of continuous improvement and adaptive problem-solving.

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