Comments on: The failure system

By: Innovation Management an Oxymoron | Innovation Toronto

Innovation Management an Oxymoron | Innovation Toronto — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:14:13 +0000

[...] The failure system (buzzmachine.com) [...]

By: Stop Telling Me It’ll be Okay « London Escapades

Stop Telling Me It’ll be Okay « London Escapades — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:44:42 +0000

[...] understand of the difference between the British and American system of reliance was inspired by this post on BuzzMachine about the fear of failure held by the British media industry – because to be able to accept [...]

By: Building Better Metaphors, Starting From Relevance | the Open/Conceptual Studio

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:35:06 +0000

[...] the process of summarizing my last post, Jeff Jarvis suggested I was “searching for a metaphor for what [he calls] beta-think.” He’s exactly [...]

By: Brian Frank

Brian Frank — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:41:53 +0000

Thanks for editing my longish brainstorm.

I hope I didn’t go too far-out. I took a couple of risks — trying to demonstrate as much as explain my case. We don’t quite have the right vocabulary for this yet.

And you got it exactly right: I’m searching for metaphors… rattling the old iron cage a little.

By: Tom Wolper

Tom Wolper — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:47:04 +0000

I have this addition to make about the culture of perfection. It encourages lying. Think about a job interview where you, the applicant, are being asked about previous experience. If you admit past failures, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage. If you lie about your experience in a way the interviewer wouldn’t be bothered to check you erase the disadvantage. The same sort of thing applies during a job review with a promotion on the line. Would you rather talk about what you learned from your failures or deny that you’ve ever failed.

By: Web Media Daily – July 16, 2009

Web Media Daily – July 16, 2009 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:25:13 +0000

[...] The failure system… BuzzMachine [...]

By: Share your great mistakes « BuzzMachine

Share your great mistakes « BuzzMachine — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:54:23 +0000

[...] the comments on the post below, John Caddell says he started MistakeBank so people could share their valuable [...]

By: John Caddell

John Caddell — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:47:38 +0000

Jeff,

These are two great posts. I really subscribe to the thinking that trying and failing is essential to innovation. Nature works this way–more than 99% of all species that have ever existed are extinct.

One obstacle to tolerating failure is the culture we’ve created within our schools. 100% perfection is the objective, instead of an environment of challenge and experimentation. As a result, students are incented to focus on grade achievement rather than learning.

When these kids get into the real world, where success is a much grayer area, they are unprepared to deal with failure. In some cases they never learn. This contributes to the risk-averse culture we have in our companies and governments.

I started a site, called The Mistake Bank (http://mistakebank.com), where people share stories of mistakes and failures they’ve learned from, as a way to contribute to the learning of others and to destigmatizing what Paul Iske calls the “brilliant failure.”

regards, John