Right Kind of Wrong
The Science of Failing Well
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- USD 14.99
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- USD 14.99
Descripción editorial
Winner of the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2023
A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2023
A revolutionary guide that will transform your relationship with failure, from the pioneering researcher of psychological safety and award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson.
We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well.
After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure—basic, complex, and intelligent—Amy showcases how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from flubs of all stripes. She illustrates how we and our organizations can embrace our human fallibility, learn exactly when failure is our friend, and prevent most of it when it is not. This is the key to pursuing smart risks and preventing avoidable harm.
With vivid, real-life stories from business, pop culture, history, and more, Edmondson gives us specifically tailored practices, skills, and mindsets to help us replace shame and blame with curiosity, vulnerability, and personal growth. You’ll never look at failure the same way again.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The idea that "failures are stepping stones on the way to success" is popular wisdom, observes Harvard Business School professor Edmondson (The Fearless Organization) in this enterprising reappraisal of what it means to misfire. But not all failures are created equal. Sifting through social psychology and a quarter century of her own academic research, Edmondson delineates the difference between "intelligent failures," which "don't cause unnecessary harm, and generate useful learning that advances our knowledge"; "basic errors," which include such preventable mishaps as sending an email meant for a friend to a boss; and "complex failures," which stem from "not one but multiple causes" and can be reduced, though not wholly eradicated, by "catching small problems before they spiral out of control." Edmondson also delves into the organizational importance of "psychological safety," or the knowledge that failures won't be held against the "culprit," making for better performance and lower burnout rates. Strategies for managing failure include casting off shame in order to learn from mistakes, and practicing "situation awareness" to parse the "failure potential" of given circumstances. Drawing on fascinating examples of individual and public mishaps—hospital errors, aviation mistakes, nuclear accidents, for example—Edmondson sets out a cogent, information-rich study based in clearly explained research and buttressed by an abundance of practical tools. Perfectionists will find this freeing.
