Reasons for Failure
2025-11-22 —
Michael Haupt
Amy Edmondson has an interesting spectrum of reasons for failure. From most blameworthy to most praiseworthy, it starts with deviance (intentional violation of process), and ends with exploratory testing (honourable experimentation with existing systems - “how can I break this?”).
Edmondson’s work on psychological safety at work has already done much good. Her latest research is about failure. I like the gist of it, because it’s quite aligned with how I’ve always felt about failure - it’s OK to fail as long as you own the failure and learn from it. A very healthy approach.
Tags: work