How a former Apple executive reframes failure.
Former Apple senior vice president, and founder of Nest (acquired by Google in 2014 for $3.2 billion), Tony Fadell, writes about failure in his fabulous book 'Build'.
Tony Fadell says:
"Traditional schooling trains people to think incorrectly about failure. You're taught a subject, you take a test, and if you fail, that's it. You're done. But once you're out of school, there is no book, no test, no grade. And if you fail, you learn. In fact, in most cases, it's the only way to learn--especially if you're creating something the world has never seen before."
Brilliant re-frame on failure, and a fantastic introduction to the concept of 'Intelligent failure' as coined by Amy C. Edmondson in her book 'Right kind of wrong'.
Failure is a given, it's part of human progress. And so, every leader can make a deliberate decision: do you talk about failure as something to be avoided at all costs, or do you position intelligent failure as a valuable source for learning and growth?
Remarkable innovation stands on the shoulders of intelligent failure: small experiments in novel territory with minimized negative impact based on sound research and hypotheses. Now more than ever it's time to lead the way forward.