We don’t learn from Failures
Conventional wisdom tells us the most valuable lessons lie not in our triumphs but in our failures. There’s been so many times that I’ve made stupid (and not so stupid) mistakes, like missing the train we were riding. So many times at work in which, despite having a committed team and a plan, we failed to deliver on our objectives. What’s more, when we finish in disappointment, we moved on – without taking the time to analyze what went wrong and why. For all those times it turns out our greatest failure wasn’t the unsuccessful project; it was our neglect to learn from it.
“Not Learning From Failure—the Greatest Failure of All”
This experience of not learning from failure isn’t unique to me. In their insightful paper “Not Learning From Failure—the Greatest Failure of All," Lauren Eskreis-Winkler and Ayelet Fishbach delve deep into this very human tendency. Instead of carefully examining our failures to extract valuable lessons, we often rush to move on, possibly to protect our fragile egos. Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach argue that people often don’t learn from failure, not because they lack the capacity, but because they choose not to process or accept the failure enough to learn from it. The old “turning our heads away”.
The authors supported their assertion with several studies, discovering that, for example, students who performed poorly on exams did not actively seek feedback or review their incorrect answers. In an organizational context, they found that companies often did the same type of evasive maneuvering - repeating mistakes without effectively analyzing their root cause.
Maximizing Learning From Failures
Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach’s work brings attention to a crucial aspect of personal and professional growth - learning from failure. But how can we start doing this effectively?
- Acknowledge failure: The first step in learning from failure is acknowledging that it happened. Only by accepting failure can we begin to analyze it.
- Analyze the failure: Try to identify what led to the failure objectively. The goal should be to understand the contributing factors and dynamics at play, not to assign blame.
- Create a plan: Once we understand why failure happened, we can build strategies to prevent its recurrence, or at least mitigate its impact.
- Implement and reflect: Implement the strategies and reflect on their effectiveness regularly. This reflection process is crucial to ensuring continued learning and improvement.
In my own journey, I had to encounter failure, sidestep it, and then meet it head-on again to realize the significance of these four steps. Failure is not the end; it’s merely part of the journey. The most successful individuals and organizations are those who embrace failure, scrutinize it, and use it as a stepping stone towards success, without letting their egos get in the way.
Seeking and embracing the teachings of failure is a path to growth and improvement. After all, learning from failure isn’t about obsessing over the past; it’s about preparing for a successful future.
Crucially, the biggest obstacle is our own inability to recognize our failures. Admitting them to other people, event to ourselves, might damage our egos and self esteem, so we decide to brush it off, without really learning from them.
If we approach our failures with curiosity, courage, and specially humility rather than fear and avoidance, we foster an environment where learning becomes an integral part of failure. As we mine our failures for insights, we equip ourselves with the wisdom to build a brighter, more successful future.
Remember, it’s not the failure that defines us, but what we do with the experience afterward. So, when failure shows up at your door next time, invite it in, learn from it, and use that wisdom to improve and move forward. Failure is only a transition.