{"id":15616,"date":"2024-02-23T09:39:45","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T09:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/primate.consulting\/?p=15616"},"modified":"2024-02-23T09:39:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-23T09:39:45","slug":"right-kind-of-wrong-the-science-of-failing-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/primate.consulting\/en\/right-kind-of-wrong-the-science-of-failing-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

The key elements of the book
\n<\/b>In her previous book, Fearless Organizations (Angeli, 2020), Amy Edmondson had shown how a team’s psychological safety condition was positively correlated with its performance. When in a team, in order to meet pressing and demanding demands, we help each other, include and value diversity, approach error fruitfully, and can rely on open dialogue (the four resignations from which Psychological Safety is fueled), not only do we achieve excellent results, but we do so while maintaining a good level of well-being and developing learning and innovation.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a world characterized by interdependence and speed of change, the ability to learn is vital to survival of people as well as businesses. Learning means venturing into uncharted territories, where error and failure are more the rule than the exception: here, therefore, our relationship with error, at the individual level before even the team level, becomes crucial. And while it is now clear the fact that error is inevitable when we experiment, this does not mean that we go into it lightly, almost seeking it out, nor that we know how to use it to develop learning for ourselves and others. Yet that is precisely what is useful today: using failure as an element of learning and development, even to fail less.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Was there a need for a whole book to talk about it? Yes, for a number of reasons, including:<\/span><\/p>\n

– Bringing clarity: Edmondson does not assert that “failing is good” at all. Suggested by slogans like “fail fast, fail often,” we may think that failing is always okay anyway and that we can loosen our guard on controls. On the contrary, Edmondson reminds us that some mistakes are bad, and that, whether tragic or harmless, they can and should be reduced.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

– Because it is a theme that affects us all indiscriminately: “errare humanum est” the ancients said, error and consequently failure are elements that inevitably characterize everyone’s experience. What makes the difference is mainly what we do with failures and mistakes, so that we do not become “devilish” by persevering, but learn and evolve.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Because the subject is very complex and cannot be addressed with simple management “recipes.” In fact, although all* of us make mistakes and nobody tends to have a good relationship with error, for emotional, cultural and structural reasons. It is therefore necessary to intervene at all three levels to turn failure into an opportunity for development.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through numerous practical examples, drawn from both personal experience and the news (the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion on Feb. 1, 2003, the air disasters of the two Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in 2018 and 2019, the Torrey Canyon oil tanker sinking in 1967, among others), Edmondson shows us how to manage the “right kind” of failures and minimize those to be avoided, acting both on systems and tools, and -first of all – on each of us’ mental approach to error. And this I think is one of the key points: change starts with us. And a change is possible. And Edmondson shows us step by step how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Quotes<\/b><\/p>\n