topic: [[Learning]] people: Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, Ayelet Fishbach created: 2024-04-05 *Oh that I could persist and harness negative feedback for all it is worth. Instead, I ofte reduce it's value, tell myself a protective half-truth, make excuses, or just stop trying.* ##### what is it? [[not learning from failure]] is a research finding with _some_ support that shows that people often do not learn from negative feedback (what you did wrong) and they very much learn from positive feedback (what you did right). ##### why does it matter? It matters because if I'm thinking about [[Coaching]], I might need to do more in assisting people with identifying their successes and promoting their understanding successes by [[cognitive task analysis]]. This reminds me of [[Identifying Reality]], and the challenge of seeing things from a different perspective. “we conclude that vicarious learning eliminated ego threat, thus increasing people’s ability to learn from failure.” (Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach, 2019, p. 8) If I could pretend that I wasn't myself, and learn vicariously from myself, what a super-power that would be. Likewise, when coaching, if I can separate action from identity, I can help the person see "that was just an action I took, it does not define me." ##### It's kind of like [[appreciation balances our negative tilt]], since we start by seeing things from a negative perspective (most of us, most of the time) we can use appreciation to get a positive perspective. Remember, [[Barbells make you stronger]], meaning you can work on either improving the negatives or strengthening the positives (the two ends of the barbell of performance) to get better. [[Appreciative Inquiry]] is the art of only focusing on positives and strengthening them. If the goal is improvement, this may be a more psychologically healthy approach. ##### What would the opposite argument be? Should we just ignore all the things that go wrong? That doesn't seem correct to me. For me, I worry that this conclusion is too narrow, based on short-term and relatively simplified learning outcomes. As we read in [[Range Why generalists triumph in a specialized world]], hard learning tends to be more lasting. There are other ways of learning, like [[metacognition]], like [[Transformative Learning]], and there are other ways, times, and complexities to [[Assessing]] learning. tags: #note/statement | #on/learning | #on/coaching | #on/feedback | #on/ego ##### Sources: Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2019). Not Learning From Failure—The Greatest Failure of All. _Psychological Science_, _30_, 095679761988113. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619881133](https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619881133) Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2020). Hidden failures. _Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes_, _157_, 57–67. Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2022). You Think Failure Is Hard? So Is Learning From It. _Perspectives on Psychological Science_, _17_(6), 1511–1524. [https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211059817](https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211059817) Edmondson, A. C. (2023). [[Right Kind of Wrong - the science of failing well]] (First Atria books hardcover edition). Atria Books.