Learning to fail intelligently – Amy Edmondson

Not much I need to add here – another banger from Amy Edmonson and colleague from 2005, exploring ‘intelligent failures’.

Summary posed in a couple of weeks.

They explore identifying failures, analysing failures and experimentation for learning – and barriers from technical and social perspectives.

Technical and social barriers:

· Complex systems make many small failures ambiguous

· Lack of skills and techniques to extract failure lessons

· Threats to self-esteem inhibit one to recognise their own failures or cultures that shoot the messenger

· And more

Some recommendations for learning:

· Build information systems to capture and organise data

· Structure after-action reviews or similar

· Effective use of experimentation and experiential learning

· Reinforce psychological safety for learning

· And more

Finally, they explore traditional vs learning-focused orientations for learning. Instead of failure being an unacceptable condition, but rather:

“Failure is a natural byproduct of a healthy process of experimentation and learning”

(* Of course they don’t mean nuclear meltdowns and planes falling from the sky are part of healthy processes…but rather the orientation, structures and worldviews towards learning to prevent these outcomes)

Cannon, M. D., & Edmondson, A. C. (2005). Failing to learn and learning to fail (intelligently): How great organizations put failure to work to innovate and improve. Long range planning, 38(3), 299-319.