How to Be Awesome at Your Job

972: Amy Edmondson on How to Fail Well

Jun 20, 2024

Amy Edmondson discusses how to fail well by understanding good failure versus bad failure, using simple tools to prevent failures, and staying motivated. She explores psychological safety in teams, intelligent failures for growth, and personal growth through failure. Resources mentioned include 'The Checklist Manifesto' and 'The Road to Character.'

33:28

Episode guests

Amy Edmondson

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Highlights

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Quick takeaways

Embracing intelligent failure promotes growth and development by stepping out of comfort zones.

Reframing failures as opportunities for insight shifts demoralizing outlooks to proactive mindsets.

Cultivating a growth-oriented mindset involves recognizing different types of failures and learning from setbacks.

Deep dives

The Value of Intelligent Failure

Embracing intelligent failure is essential for growth and development. When everything goes perfectly, it indicates a lack of stretching beyond comfort zones. Amy Edmondson highlights the importance of choosing learning over knowing, as it involves an active decision to remain curious and open to new insights.

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Intro

2min

Exploring the concept of psychological safety in teams through a favorite failure

3min

Embracing Intelligent Failures for Growth and Learning

20min

Embracing Failure for Personal Growth

5min

Insights on Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn Jobs

2min

Exploring Research, Books, and Wisdom on Failure and Learning

3min

Amy Edmondson shares how to minimize unproductive failures and maximize intelligent ones.

— YOU’LL LEARN —

1) What separates good failure from bad failure

2) The surprisingly simple tool that prevents many failures

3) How to stay motivated in the face of failure

Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep972 for clickable versions of the links below.

— ABOUT AMY —

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Her work explores teaming – the dynamic forms of collaboration needed in environments characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. She has also studied the role of psychological safety in teamwork and innovation. Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked with founder and CEO Larry Wilson to design change programs in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and innovation in the built environment remains an area of enduring interest and passion.

• Book: Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well

• Website: AmyCEdmondson.com

• Check out the interview in video format on YouTube!

— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW —

• Study: “The Intuitive Psychologist and His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process” by Lee Ross

• Book: The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande

• Book: The Road to Character by David Brooks

• Past episode: 707: Amy Edmondson on How to Build Thriving Teams with Psychological Safety

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