#note/sourcereview/article | #note/sourcereview/book ![[right-kind-of-wrong-9781982195069_lg.jpg]] ## What is the thesis? Failure _can_ be a key step in success, but doesn't have to be. It is helpful to have a typology and structure to view failure, to understand it, and to try to move towards productive failure. Failure happens in some reliable ways, and techniques can be used to understand failure, to create learning cultures, and to try to grow from failure. Simple failures often occur from inattention and should be reduced. Complex failures are emergent and have multiple causes, don't try to over-simplify them. Intelligent failures need to be designed to be as small as possible, with learning as the goal, and should take place in an unexplored territory. ## Am I convinced and why? To an extent, I am. I think her last chapter on [[failure as a privilege]] informs us that she continues to have [[Blind Spot]]s about failure. Of course she would, she's just one person. Overall, the book is fantastic, a life's work, has a purpose, and points at a model for understanding (or getting closer to understanding) how things go wrong, how to avoid problems when possible, and how to set up for learning. Of course [[black swan events]] are somewhat unaccounted for. ## Summarize the argument She frames errors as unintentional (regardless of the size/scope) and violations as intentional. There are so many ways to fail, a "landscape" is helpful to categorize ![[Failure Landscape.jpg]] ### Her Framework: - A Taxonomy of failure: *Size is not the useful part of a failure* - *The useful question is, did the failure bring us new information that can help us in the future.* - Consider the idea of [[normal accidents]]: are accidents/emergent errors just a part of complex systems? - **Basic** - manage with checklists/etc. Avoid with vigilance in key moments and access to relevant knowledge/process - **Complex** - Have multiple causes (+ a pinch of bad luck) - will always be with us, are mainly prevented by [[create the conditions]] for safety, including available resources, time, cognitive load, etc. - **[[Intelligent Failure]]** - good failures necessary for progress - Pilots are a key example of good failures ![[rules for creating effective pilots]] Although context type and failure type are associated they are not fully linked. Basic errors *can* take place in complex contexts. ### A spectrum of causes for failure From her attached pdf ![[CleanShot 2024-04-02 at 09.08.52.jpg]] - Awareness - Self Awareness or [[interoception]] - What gets in our way of learning? - [[It's hard to learn if you already know]] - [[not learning from failure]] - [[stop, challenge, choose]] - Become self aware to pay attention to ambiguous threats. - Ambiguous threats give you a recovery window, with which you can pull back from the path of the error - Welcome false alarms - [[situational awareness]] - [[Few of our contexts are actually predictable, but this doesn’t stop us from acting as if they are]] - - [[Systems]] and systems thinking - _the interactions between the elements and the purpose of the system are more important than the elements. consider second-order effects._ - where do you draw the boundaries, ask yourself if you should expand the boundaries - [[andon cord]] - [[second order problem solving]] - expand the boundary - Find the levers - Belonging is an individual belief, psychological safety is an emergent phenomenon of a group How these forms of awareness interact with the failure types, and how we can put ourselves in a position to avoid failures that should be avoided and learn from failures that are inevitable. [[cognitive reframing]] is required to think better about our failures, we can reposition them for us and our teams. "Nice catch" turns a near miss into a win. ### [[Forming Habits]] for failing well - persistence - [[reflection]] - accountability - apology _This reminds me of [[Power, For All]], and implementing systems for remaining humble and grounded._ ## What is the other side of the argument? [[failure as a privilege]] ## What else do I wonder about? Where are her other blind spots? This is a useful model, [[all models are wrong but some are useful]] the landscape is too complex for me right now ## Action - [see Martin Selligman’s research](https://todoist.com/showTask?id=7822355692) ## When do I want to stumble across this? #on/problemsolving | #on/error| #on/failure | #on/systems | #on/situationalawareness | #on/selfefficacy ## Source: Edmondson, A. C. (2023). _Right kind of wrong: The science of failing well_ (Audiobook). Atria Books. %% ## References, Quotes, Ideas ```dataview table file.mtime.year + "-" + file.mtime.month + "-" + file.mtime.day as Modified from [[Right Kind of Wrong - the science of failing well]] and !outgoing([[Right Kind of Wrong - the science of failing well]]) sort file.mtime desc ``` https://www.workplacepsychology.net/post/book-review-right-kind-of-wrong-the-science-of-failing-well [[The Right Kind of Wrong.pdf]]