The Science of Failing Well | Amy Edmondson
Dan Harris talks with Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, about intelligent failure. They discuss overcoming obstacles like shame and perfectionism, the importance of a growth mindset, and creating psychological safety to learn from mistakes.
Deep Dive Analysis
11 Topic Outline
Introduction to Intelligent Failure and Amy Edmondson's Work
Defining Failure: Basic, Complex, and Intelligent
Criteria for Intelligent Failure
Obstacles to Intelligent Failure: Aversion, Confusion, and Fear
Overcoming Obstacles Through Cognitive Reappraisal
The Problem of Perfectionism and Social Media's Impact
The Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
The Serenity Prayer and Accepting Our Smallness
Contextual Awareness and Managing Anxiety
Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety
The Unequal License to Fail and Societal Inequality
10 Key Concepts
Failure
Failure is defined as an undesired outcome, usually unexpected, that has meaning to us and didn't go as hoped. It refers to a consequential event or result, not just a minor mistake.
Intelligent Failure
This is the 'right kind of wrong' and refers to an undesired result from a novel foray into new territory. It's an experiment that failed but from which valuable lessons are learned, often being the only way to gain necessary knowledge for progress.
Basic Failure
A type of failure characterized by a single cause, typically human error, leading to an undesired outcome. These failures are generally preventable.
Complex Failure
A multi-causal failure where something goes wrong due to multiple interacting factors. None of the individual causes alone would have led to the failure; it's a 'perfect storm' scenario, also largely preventable.
Self-Handicapping
A psychological term where individuals, often due to perfectionist tendencies, avoid challenging tasks or courses. This is because the fear of coming up short is too scary, leading them to choose easier options to protect their self-image.
Wise Remorse
This concept distinguishes itself from shame or guilt by focusing specifically on an action or mistake, allowing for change and learning. It avoids adding a narrative of being an 'irrevocably terrible person' and instead promotes taking responsibility and resolving to do better.
Growth Mindset
A belief that one's capabilities, including intelligence, are like muscles that can grow and improve with effort and stretching. Individuals with this mindset are more willing to take on tough challenges and learn from potential failures.
Fixed Mindset
A belief that one's capabilities, such as intelligence, are inherent and unchangeable. This mindset often leads to risk aversion and reluctance to try new things, as individuals fear being perceived as not smart.
Psychological Safety
An environment where candor and welcome risks are expected, fostering learning and progress. It's not about comfort but about creating a space where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and offer ideas without fear of negative repercussions.
Propancha
A Buddhist concept referring to the 'imperialistic tendency of mind' where a small event triggers a cascade of mental movies about horrible potential ramifications. It describes the mind's tendency to exaggerate and catastrophize outcomes.
10 Questions Answered
Amy Edmondson defines failure as an undesired and usually unexpected outcome or event that holds meaning to us and did not go as hoped, distinguishing it from a mere trip or mistake without consequence.
Amy Edmondson identifies three types of failure: basic failure (single cause, usually human error), complex failure (multi-causal, interacting factors), and intelligent failure (undesired result of a novel foray into new territory).
The main obstacles are aversion (emotional desire not to fail), confusion (lack of cognitive frameworks for good vs. bad failures), and fear (interpersonal and social stigma associated with failure).
Individuals can overcome aversion and fear by adopting a new way of thinking, reminding themselves that life is complex and uncertain, and embracing a cognitive reappraisal that acknowledges fallibility and the naturalness of discomfort.
Perfectionism is a crippling belief that one should and could be perfect, leading to deep unhappiness due to unrealistic standards and an unwillingness to take challenging risks, which can result in self-handicapping.
Social media presents curated, idealized, and unrealistic images of others' lives, making individuals feel inadequate by comparison and fostering an attachment to unrealistic beliefs about what life should be like, while also reducing genuine social interaction.
A healthier relationship involves developing cognitive and emotional skills, recognizing the fallibility of ourselves and systems, and understanding that disappointments are inevitable, allowing for thoughtful risk-taking without catastrophizing outcomes.
Leaders can create psychological safety by explicitly framing the work (highlighting novelty or stakes), inviting feedback and ideas, and monitoring their responses to others by pausing, taking a breath, and responding in a thoughtful, forward-facing, and learning-oriented way.
Bringing others into your worries provides different perspectives, helps in healthy thinking, and allows for collective support, making the process of confronting challenges and failures a team sport rather than an isolated struggle.
The 'unequal license to fail' refers to the reality that not everyone, particularly women and people of color, has the same permission or societal leeway to take risks and fail without disproportionately negative consequences, often feeling they represent their entire group.
15 Actionable Insights
1. Cultivate Self-Compassion
After making mistakes, deliberately talk to yourself like a kind friend, acknowledging that everyone makes errors and encouraging yourself to move forward, rather than engaging in self-critical thoughts.
2. Practice Stop, Challenge, Choose
When negative thoughts or spirals begin, pause and take a breath (Stop), then interrogate the rationality and truth of those thoughts (Challenge), and finally choose a healthier, more productive response to move forward.
3. Adopt a Growth Mindset
Believe that your capabilities, including intelligence, are like muscles that strengthen with use and challenges, encouraging you to take on difficult tasks and learn from potential failures.
4. Embrace Intelligent Failure
Actively seek out opportunities for ‘intelligent failures’ by taking thoughtful risks in new territory, driven by a clear goal and a hypothesis, ensuring the experiment is as small as possible to learn effectively.
5. Foster Psychological Safety
Create an environment where candor and risks are expected and welcome by explicitly framing the work context, inviting input from everyone, and monitoring your responses to unexpected news with thoughtfulness and a forward-facing attitude.
6. Practice Non-Attachment to Results
Focus your effort on what you can control and work as hard as possible, but mentally detach from the specific outcomes, understanding that results are often beyond your control in an entropic universe.
7. Develop Contextual Awareness
Habitually assess the actual stakes (human safety, financial, reputational) and the level of uncertainty in any situation to determine if it’s a low-stakes environment for playful risk-taking or a high-stakes one requiring caution.
8. Avoid Blame and Shame
Recognize your natural tendency to blame others or yourself, then consciously shift to a more thoughtful analysis of what happened, practicing ‘wise remorse’ focused on specific actions rather than self-condemnation.
9. Never Worry Alone
When facing anxiety or problems, involve others to gain different perspectives and support, as this collaborative approach can help you see situations more clearly and find healthier responses.
10. Give Forward-Looking Advice
When providing feedback to others (or yourself), focus on what to keep doing and what to try next for improvement, framing it as ‘advice’ to inform future actions rather than just critiquing past performance.
11. Do Your Homework (Wisely)
Before embarking on an experiment, seek out easily known background information or consult a few thoughtful people to avoid wasteful failures, but don’t fall into ‘analysis paralysis’ by over-researching.
12. Limit Social Media Use
Be mindful of the pernicious effects of social media, which presents unrealistic images and can be anti-social; consider limiting its use, especially for young people, to foster real-world interaction and focus.
13. Reinforce Learning Continuously
Surround yourself with reminders, read books, listen to podcasts, and engage with admired people to continuously reinforce positive habits and mindsets, embracing redundancy in learning for deeper understanding.
14. Recognize Unequal License to Fail
Be aware that societal inequalities (e.g., based on gender or race) can grant different permissions to speak up and take risks; those with unearned privilege should cultivate humility and work to compensate for these disparities.
15. Practice Discernment and Humility
Cultivate the wisdom to discern what you can and cannot change, accepting your inherent fallibility and limited control over the universe, while fully committing to doing your best within your sphere of influence.
8 Key Quotes
If you're not failing regularly, you're probably not taking enough risks or running enough experiments in your life.
Dan Harris
A failure is an undesired outcome, usually unexpected, but unexpected and undesired. It has to be somewhat of an event or a result.
Amy Edmondson
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space, you know, lies our power, our choice, right? Our freedom to actually think about and respond to things in a way that works better for us and for those around us.
Amy Edmondson
Perfectionism leaves us caught in a deep unhappiness because we cannot, and we know we cannot measure up to our unrealistic standards of perfect.
Amy Edmondson
If it's not one thing, it's another.
Joseph Goldstein (quoted by Dan Harris)
All we can do is everything we can do.
David Axelrod (quoted by Dan Harris)
Redundancy is your friend.
Amy Edmondson
With great power comes great responsibility.
Spider-Man's uncle (quoted by Dan Harris)
2 Protocols
Five Component Points of Intelligent Failure
Amy Edmondson- Get clear about the goal that drives the experiment or risk-taking.
- Ensure the endeavor is in new terrain, where experimentation is necessary for progress.
- Do your homework by seeking easily known background information to inform your hypothesis.
- Keep the experiment as small as possible, not risking excessive resources or time.
- Take the time to learn from the failure, understanding what happened, why, and what it means for future actions.
Cognitive Framework for Responding to Failure (Stop, Challenge, Choose)
Amy Edmondson- Stop: Pause and breathe, catching yourself before spiraling into negative thinking about undesired events.
- Challenge: Interrogate your thinking, asking how rational or true it is, and consider if there's a healthier way to view the situation.
- Choose: Select a healthier response, such as non-attachment or a more thoughtful diagnosis, and move forward with that perspective.