Failures and mistakes are an inevitable part of our lives, both personally and professionally. They are also an inevitable part of the life of any organisation. As a surgeon, I wanted to know how I could use my failures to become better at my job in the same way that I want to learn from my errors to become a better friend, a better wife, a better mum etc. As I began to take on roles within clinical governance in the hospital, I was keen to understand how the hospital as an organisation or any organisation could learn from things that don’t go well. As I started reading about this, I began to realise that the things I was learning were generic and could apply to any person or organisation in a wide range of different circumstances. This short booklet has been adapted from a webinar. It uses examples from business, entrepreneurs, parenting, education, healthcare and science to demonstrate the breadth of these issues and allow readers to understand how broad these things are and how many situations the same principles can be applied to. For a slightly longer and personal account, please see my book, Failing Intelligently.
If you have a child in education, you may have come across the concept of growth mindset pioneered by Carol Dweck4. This argues simply that there are two types of people. There are ‘fixed mindset’ people and ‘growth mindset’ people. You may recognise the characteristics of each of these in yourself, friends, family or colleagues. It is quite a simplistic but useful way of looking at things but it’s not without its critics. Characteristics of a fixed mindset include people who are defined by their failures or successes. They see their skills as something they are born and not something they can change. They believe that they are either good at something or they aren’t. Therefore, challenges can be something to avoid because they may reveal a lack of skill or ability and there can be a tendency to give up easily. Effort is unnecessary and something you do if you aren’t good enough i.e. don’t have enough natural ability. If you give a fixed mindset person critical feedback, you may find that they get quite defensive and take it personally, because they are defined by their success or failure. When setbacks happen, they tend to blame others and they get discouraged. However, characteristics of a growth mindset include people who perceive that their skills can come through hard work. Obviously, there is sometimes a degree of natural talent, but all very successful people have had to work hard even when they have natural ability. They hold the view that they can always improve and therefore challenges can be an opportunity to learn and grow as well as develop persistence. Effort is viewed as essential and is the path to mastery of a skill. Growth mindset people tend to ask for feedback. They see it as a useful way of learning as it will identify areas that others can see need improvement. Setbacks are therefore seen as a wake-up call to either try harder next time, do something different or find ways around the problem. The issue is this: Fixed mindset people tend to fail badly. They give up easily, they blame others and they try not to take responsibility. Whereas growth mindset people tend to fail well. They persevere, they take responsibility and they demonstrate learning.
