Transforming Knowledge into Change

Failing to learn and learning to fail (intelligently): How great organizations put failure to work to improve and innovate

The paper provides insight into what makes learning from failure so difficult to put into practice. The authors address the question of why organizations fail to learn from failure. They identify pernicious barriers embedded in both technical and social systems that make collective learning processes unusual in organizations, and present recommendations for what managers can do to overcome these barriers. 

The authors also address the question of how organizations can learn to fail intelligently -- as a deliberate strategy to promote innovation and improvement. To do this the authors clarify the key processes through which organizations can learn from failure -- a set of activities that includes developing the ability to generate failures deliberaltey -- through experimentation. The guidelines in the report are offered as keys to unlocking an organization's ability to learn from failure.  

 

Bibliographic Details
Author Mark D. Cannon and Amy C. Edmondson
Publisher N/A
Publication Date February 5, 2004
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Submitted to Point K April 13, 2015 - 10:18am


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