People Before Tech: The Importance of Psychological Safety and Teamwork in the Digital Age, reviewed

In this review we look at the latest book by Duena Blomstrom, published by Bloomsbury, see more on their website here.

People Before Tech: The Importance of Psychological Safety and Teamwork in the Digital Age, reviewed

Duena Blomstrom has been writing and commentating on these issues for a while now, so it makes sense for her to produce a deeper dive into these topics. With the rapid recent push to digital, remote working driven practices this book also becomes even more topical, relevant and important. Blomstrom tackles these issues in an intelligent and logical way. Chapter headings like ‘Soft Skills Are Hard’ recognise that, while it may be relatively easy to identify the challenges, achieving successful remedies is a much more difficult proposition.

These challenges do validate the importance of this book, and the fact that it does successfully engage with teasing out some good ideas and useful suggestions in terms of what good can look like. We are already over a year into a paradigm shift in terms of the way we work, the way we can work, and also what could be done better too. This book offers some thought provoking insights and helpful ideas to inform a potential roadmap going forwards. Not everyone is doing it well, but reading this book could be of great value to many slower moving companies, CEOs and HR departments. Well worth reading.

The book’s blurb ->

A fascinating guide for business and tech leaders on navigating digital transformations and the importance of Psychological Safety in creating high performing teams. Businesses across all sectors now realise that, if they intend on staying competitive in the 21st century, then they must embrace new innovative
technologies and methodologies such as AI, automation, digital platforms and Agile.  But many business leaders have become too focused upon digital transformation, leading them to neglect other vital elements of their organization.

Tech giants have always searched for ways to create effective and high- performing teams, from recruitment tactics to psychometric methodology, but it wasn’t until recently that they discovered the real key to successful teams: Psychological Safety. A group dynamic that allows team members to take risks, create and innovate without fear of repercussions.

13th May 2021 Hardback: 9781472985453: £20
Ebook: 9781472985460: £18

More about the author ->

Duena Blomstrom is CEO and Co-Founder of PeopleNotTech, a people
software solution focusing on Psychological Safety and high performing team
dynamics. With a background in Psychology and Business, she is also an
international keynote speaker with many years of experience leading Agile
teams and creating digital products, a prolific writer on Forbes and LinkedIn
and the author of Emotional Banking: Fixing Culture, Leveraging FinTech and
Transforming Retail Banks Into Brands.

She has ranked among the ‘Fintech Power 50’ and is also a prolific keynote speaker.
Duena is also often named as a top 100 global influencer in the tech space and has been recognised as a LinkedIn ‘Top Voice’ with 250,000 followers and 110,000 newsletter subscribers.

Psychological Safety has been studied by academics for years and established as the main interaction pattern of healthy and happy teams. Still, it was Silicon Valley’s need for technology delivery speed that gave birth to new ways of work such as Agile and DevOps, that they rediscovered the concept of Psychological Safety and made it their secret recipe for high performance.

Built upon fascinating research and an international array of case studies, People Before Tech is an incisive examination of how organizations – through their digital transformations – become stranded with un-optimised teams and disenfranchised employees. Duena highlights how Psychological Safety can boost productivity and deliver high performance. Including practical guidance on efficiency and effectiveness of workplace teams, People Before Tech is an invaluable guide for business and tech leaders as well as HR professionals.

Duena Blomstrom is CEO and Co-Founder of PeopleNotTech, a people software solution focusing on Psychological Safety and high performing team dynamics. With a background in Psychology and Business, she is also an international keynote speaker with many years of experience leading Agile teams and creating digital products, a prolific writer on Forbes and LinkedIn
and the author of Emotional Banking: Fixing Culture, Leveraging FinTech and Transforming Retail Banks Into Brands. She has ranked among the ‘Fintech Power 50’ and is also a prolific keynote speaker.

Duena is also often named as a top 100 global influencer in the tech space
and has been recognised as a LinkedIn ‘Top Voice’ with 250,000 followers
and 110,000 newsletter subscribers.

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