On the Quality of Failure
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/ijbsr.v4i5.517Keywords:
Management, Failure, Success, Innovation, Success Lock-In, LearningAbstract
No innovation without failed experiments. No acquisition of competency without hard work, efforts to translate mistakes and insufficient – failed – attempts into mastery. The human condition is one defined by trial and error. Success equates with narrow escape from failure, whereas failure may be a success just missed. The purpose of management can be said to achieve success, so the management of failure is a key one, seeking to turn failure into profit. Almost no successful solutions remain eternally, so signals indicating that they have arrived in their twilight zone are important. Success may be too comforting and lulling, creating a dangerous success lock-in. Courting failure by acting against conventional wisdom and routine intuitions may, though risky, generate huge payoffs. A productive failure management should appreciate that failure is a way to uncertainty reduction, to better information and knowledge, new wisdom and new intuitions. Failure can and should be celebrated and harvested. The most successful mineral prospectors are those who drill more holes; while their percentage of dry ones is average, their number of lucky ones makes for success. The same holds for ideas, where there is the additional benefit that a larger number of ideas, diverse as they are, makes for improved idea handling proficiency.References
"The Failure Issue”. (2011). Harvard Business Review, 89, (4), 1-142.
Taleb, N. N. (2012). Anti-Fragile. London: Penguin Books.
Ormerod, P. (2005). Why Most Things Fail. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
Vedin, B-A. (2013). Teaching and Learning by Way of Failure? Journal of arts & Humanities, 2 (6), 154-159.
Harford, T. (2011). Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Gopalakrishnan, R. (2013). Supporting creative failures. Business Standard, August 8, 2013. Retrieved from website: http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion
/supporting-creative-failures-113080801374_1.html
Cf Langer, E. J. (1997). The Power of Mindful learning. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Autin, F. & Croizet, J-C. (2012). Improving Working Memory Efficiency by Reframing Metacognitive Interpretation of Task Difficulty. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 141, (4) 610-618. Can be retrieved via website: http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2012/03/academic-pressure.aspx
How Your Failures Can Help You Succeed. (2013). Entrepreneur, January 23, 2013. Retrieved from website: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/225199
Dillon, K. (2011) Interview: I Think of My Failures as a Gift. Harvard Business Review, 89, (4),86-89.
McArdle, M. (2014).The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success. New York, NY: Penguin.
Munk’s tale. (2014). The Economist, 411, (8883) April 19, 58.
Dennett, D. C. (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Cf website: http://billsmusings.com/?p=89
Dennett, D. C. (2013). Intuition Pumps And Other Tools for Thinking. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co.
Kim, S. & al. Outside advantage: Can social rejection fuel creative thought? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142, (3), 605-611. doi: 10.1037/a0029728
How 5 Successful Entrepreneurs Bounced Back After Failure. Entrepreneur, 23 January 2013. Retrieved from website: www.entrepreneur.com/article/225204
Utterback, J., & al. (2006). Designed-inspired Innovation. Singapore: World Scientific.
Kim, W. C. & Mauborgne, R. (2005). Blue Ocean Strategy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Christensen, C. (1997). The Innovator's Dilemma. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press
Grove, A. (1996). Only the Paranoid Survive. New York, NY: Currency/Doubleday.
Gayford, M. (2010). Man with a Blue Scarf. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson.
McCorduck, P. (1990). Aaron’s Code: Meta-Art, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of Harold Cohen. New York, NY: W. H. Freeman & Co.
Wittgenstein, L. (1922). Tractatus logico-philosophicus. London: Routledge.
Monk, R. (1990). Ludwig Wittgenstein. London: Jonathan Cape.
Muntaner, R. (1328/1332). Crònica. Xirivella.
How Early Success Can Lead To Failure. Retrieved from website: http://blog.thefailcon.com/post/63715884489/how-early-success-can-lead-to-failure
Harford, Op cit.
Lewis, S. (2014). The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Vedin, B-A. (1992). Teknisk Revolt! Stockholm: Atlantis.
Taleb, N. N. (2007). The Black Swan. London: Penguin.
Gunther McGrath, R. (2011). Failing By Design. Harvard Business Review, 89 (4), 77-83.
Gunther McGrath, R. (2013). The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press
Sitkin, S. (1992). Learning through failure: the strategy of small losses. Research in organizational behavior, 14, 231-266.
Schoemaker, P. J. H. & Gunth, R. E. (2006) The Wisdom of Deliberate Mistakes. Harvard Business Review, 84, (5), 109-115.
Ayres, I. (2007). Super Crunchers. New York, NY: Bantam.
(1968). Management of New Products. Chicago, IL: Booz, Allen & Hamilton.
Vedin, B-A. (2004). Funding Growth in an Age of Austerity (comment). Harvard Business Review, 82 (11), 143-144.
Fleck, L. (1935). Entstehung und Entwicklung einer Wißenschaftlichen Tatsache. Basel: Schwabe.
Preview of research to be published in a forthcoming issue of Physical Review Letters, Retrieved from website: http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/apr/22/physicists-create-frictionless-flow-by-adding-more-friction
Tata press release, from website: http://www.tata.com/company/releasesinside/e!$$$$!ICT4Y!$$$!!$$$$!SM=/TLYVr3YPkMU=
Retrieved from website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2917452/Youve-made-a-mistake-The-boss-will-buy-you-a-drink.html
Tetlock, P.E. (2005). Expert Political Judgment: How Good is it? How Can we Know? Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Rosenhan, D. L. (1973) On being sane in insane places. Science, New Series, 179, (4070), 250-258. Also available at website: http://www.bonkersinstitute.org/rosenhan.html
FailCon website: http://thefailcon.com/
Dennett, D. C. (2013). Intuition pumps, op cit.
Vedin, B-A. (1980). Corporate Culture for Innovation. Lund: Studentlitteratur/Chartwell-Bratt
Hofstede, G. (1980). Culture’s Consequences. London: Sage. See also website: http://geert-hofstede.com/dimensions.html
Retrieved from website: http://atlasofprejudice.tumblr.com/post/80937352126/20-ways-to-slice-the-european-continent-from-atlas
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).