In the captivating video, “Decoding Failure, Debunking Feedback, & Harnessing Learning for Success,” renowned experts Amy Edmondson, Adam Grant, and Des Dearlove dive deep into the transformative power of failure and feedback. Discover how embracing setbacks and effectively utilizing feedback can propel you towards unparalleled success in your career and personal life.
Unlock the secrets to success and revolutionize your approach to failure and feedback. Keep reading to gain invaluable insights that will empower you to thrive in the face of challenges and achieve your goals with newfound confidence.
Table of Contents
Genres
Psychology, Personal Development, Leadership, Business, Education, Self-Improvement, Communication, Resilience, Growth Mindset, Professional Development
Amy Edmondson, Adam Grant, and Des Dearlove engage in an insightful discussion, exploring the intricacies of failure, feedback, and learning. They challenge conventional wisdom surrounding these topics, offering fresh perspectives and practical strategies for harnessing their potential.
The experts emphasize the importance of embracing failure as a valuable learning opportunity rather than a setback to be avoided. They debunk common myths about feedback, highlighting its crucial role in personal and professional growth when delivered and received effectively.
The video delves into the psychological and emotional aspects of dealing with failure and feedback, providing actionable advice for cultivating resilience and a growth mindset. By reframing failure as a stepping stone to success and leveraging feedback as a powerful tool for improvement, individuals can unlock their full potential and achieve extraordinary results in their endeavors.
Review
“Decoding Failure, Debunking Feedback, & Harnessing Learning for Success” is a thought-provoking and transformative video that challenges traditional notions surrounding failure and feedback. Amy Edmondson, Adam Grant, and Des Dearlove deliver a compelling and insightful discussion, backed by their extensive expertise and research in the fields of psychology, leadership, and personal development.
The video’s strength lies in its ability to reframe failure and feedback as essential components of growth and success, rather than obstacles to be feared or avoided. The experts provide practical strategies and real-life examples that resonate with viewers, making the content both relatable and actionable.
The video’s engaging format and the dynamic interaction between the speakers keep viewers captivated throughout. While the video covers a wide range of topics, it maintains a clear focus on the central themes of failure, feedback, and learning.
Overall, this video is a must-watch for anyone seeking to cultivate a growth mindset, embrace challenges, and harness the power of feedback to achieve personal and professional success. It is an invaluable resource for individuals at all stages of their careers, offering profound insights and practical guidance that can be immediately applied to enhance one’s journey towards excellence.
Recommendation
Amy Edmondson and Adam Grant, two heavyweights of organizational psychology, discuss the intersection of their ideas — intelligent failure and hidden potential, respectively. In conversation with management theorist Des Dearlove, Edmondson and Grant jovially exchange views, questions, and explanations. The result is a warm meeting of minds, as the academics expound on their latest research. So grab a coffee and eavesdrop on their informal chat about failure, feedback, learning, and success.
Take-Aways
- To excel in any field, be prepared to learn from failure.
- Pursue the “right kind of wrong” to further your knowledge and make progress.
- Solicit advice, not feedback.
Summary
To excel in any field, be prepared to learn from failure.
Many people believe successful individuals are marked for greatness from an early age — like Mozart, a child prodigy who became a world-renowned composer. However, if you look at successful adults, most didn’t shine as children. Even when someone is born with certain talents, the main factors that power their success are their zeal for — and innate motivation to pursue — a particular activity or area of interest. Fulfilling your potential is, thus, less about your starting point than the distance you’re willing to travel to grow your capabilities.
“If we all expected even 5%–10% of our projects to fail, we’d have a much easier time growing and learning.” (Adam Grant)
People who grow and succeed long-term possess specific “character skills” that encourage perseverance and self-directed learning. You must be willing to take risks, develop the capacity to absorb valuable information, and make room for failure. Polyglot Benny Lewis learns languages quickly because he sets himself a goal of making upwards of 200 mistakes each day as he practices his skills while immersed in the homeland of a new language. Behavioral psychologist Adam Grant adopts a similar approach: He sets himself an annual budget of three project failures per year. Grant believes that a year without failed projects indicates that he hasn’t stepped far enough outside his comfort zone.
Pursue the “right kind of wrong” to further your knowledge and make progress.
The innate desire to avoid failure prompts people to shy away from risky endeavors. But people can’t progress and grow if they always play it safe. The key is to pursue small but significant goals that force you to stretch your capabilities — the right kind of wrong. To pursue these “intelligent risks,” ensure the stakes are high enough to push you to grow. Based on your analysis of the situation or domain, you should believe that you have a reasonable chance of success if you work toward your goal, but failure must be possible. Don’t wager more than you can afford to lose: Failure should not cause irreparable damage to anyone’s life or fundamental well-being.
Avoid “basic failures” — mistakes you could sidestep by acquainting yourself with fundamental how-to’s and best practices — and “complex failures,” which occur when a string of basic failures result in a catastrophe — the Columbia and Challenger space shuttle disasters, for example. Moreover, eschew the “wrong kind of right” — succeeding by staying in your comfort zone.
Failure hurts, but it is worth celebrating when it occurs in pursuit of the right kind of wrong. Throwing a “failure party” might seem ludicrous, but it can destigmatize falling short and prevent people from repeating their mistakes. Celebrating the right kind of wrong recognizes the intense effort of trying to achieve something, honors the learning journey, and helps the team process and bounce back from failure quickly.
Solicit advice, not feedback.
When you ask others for feedback about how you might improve — say, as a leader — you’ll probably receive either overly positive praise, which can make you complacent, or overly negative criticism, which can damage your self-esteem. Instead, ask for advice. Respondents are likely to give you practical tips that you can apply immediately. If you seek advice from just one or two people, their responses may corroborate your assumptions, and you’ll miss an opportunity to grow. You need “disconfirming data.” So ask many people for advice, and cross-reference the pointers you receive. If several respondents offer the same suggestion, you’ve identified an opportunity to improve and grow.
“Innovation happens when we’re hearing from very different perspectives, different industries, different areas of expertise…and we’re willing to listen and integrate and synthesize and try stuff, knowing it might not work, and learn fast, pivot, try again, try something else.” (Amy Edmondson)
In a familiar high-stakes situation, a leader can easily make quick decisions. But when in uncharted territory, a good leader will solicit a broad range of perspectives, listen carefully to all suggestions, and then decide how to act on that information. During the infamous 2010 Chilean mine rescue mission, operation leader André Sougarret ultimately chose to run with a suggestion offered by a novice technician, Igor Proestakis. Proestakis’s youth and inexperience did not deter Sougarret from recognizing the brilliance of his idea for rescuing the miners.
A true leader delivers results and invests in the team members’ growth. Create a psychologically safe environment where all employees feel comfortable sharing their opinions and ideas and believe their voices matter.
About the Speakers
Amy Edmondson, the author of The Right Kind of Wrong and The Fearless Organization, is a professor of leadership and management at Harvard Business School. Adam Grant, the author of Originals, Think Again, and Hidden Potential, is a professor of organizational psychology at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Organizational theorist Des Dearlove is a co-founder of Thinkers50, an organization that identifies and ranks management ideas.