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Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well Kindle Edition

by Amy C. Edmondson (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 275 ratings

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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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Amy Edmondson, one of our finest business minds, offers a bold new perspective on human fallibility. With a graceful mix of scientific research and practical advice, she shows how to transform failure from an obstacle to a steppingstone — from a weight that holds up back to a wind that propels us forward. Right Kind of Wrong is guidebook for our times.” -- Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Regret and Drive

“No skill in life is more important than learning from failure—and no one on earth knows more about it than Amy Edmondson. Drawing on her eye-opening evidence and rich practical experience, she offers a wealth of insight on how to take intelligent risks and bounce forward after setbacks. If everyone internalized the ideas in this important book, we would all be safer, smarter, and more successful.” -- Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and Hidden Potential, and host of the TED podcast Re:Thinking

“A masterclass in navigating, and even seeking out, the inevitable failures that pave the way to success. The incomparable Amy Edmondson shows us how to see failures as beginnings rather than endings—and how to create the conditions for failing well. Comprehensive, clear, and full of real-world examples, a must-read for performers and leaders alike.” -- Angela Duckworth, New York Times bestselling author of Grit

“The noble failure is essential to innovation and growth. But what is the difference between the noble failure, the sloppy mistake, and blameworthy sabotage? How can you make sure you're creating the conditions for success? Right Kind of Wrong will help you take the kind of risks you have to take in order to succeed in your career and in life.” -- Kim Scott, author of Radical Candor and Just Work

“Amy Edmondson’s intelligent, warm and funny Right Kind of Wrong will take you through the landscape of failure – the good ones that we learn from, the stupid ones we wish we could roll back, and the catastrophic ones we would all benefit from collaborating to avoid. It’s packed with examples and stories and lands with some meaningful ideas about how you can cultivate awareness to, indeed, fail well.” -- Rita McGrath, bestselling author of The End of Competitive Advantage

“Failing is such an important part of living and leading. Finally, we have the book that will help us learn how to fail well. In it, Amy shares with us very practical tools and advice illustrated by many inspiring, jaw-dropping stories. A breakthrough book that every leader needs to study and begin applying. It will make the world a better place.” -- Hubert Joly, Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, former Best Buy Chairman and CEO, and Author, The Heart of Business

“Creating an environment that is safe for solving difficult problems is one of the most important things we can do. With great clarity and insight, Amy shows us how we can make room for failure, recognizing that our emotions and personal needs are part of the solution. Right Kind of Wrong will inspire you to do your boldest work.” -- Ed Catmull, bestselling author of Creativity Inc.

“The best book ever written on learning from failure by the researcher who taught millions of us about the power of psychological safety in our workplaces. Right Kind of Wrong is packed with Amy Edmondson’s relentless wisdom and warmth, and above all, proven solutions that will help you build teams and companies where we fallible humans can thrive.” -- Robert I. Sutton, New York Times bestselling author of The Friction Project, Scaling Up Excellence, and Good Boss, Bad Boss

“Right Kind of Wrong is the ultimate self-help book: powerful ideas combined with practical tools. My advice is to snap shots of the book’s eight illustrations – each a gem – and tack them up in front of your desk. You will be more effective immediately and on a faster learning curve going forward.” -- Roger L. Martin, author of A New Way to Think

“This book is as important as any I, among the most avid of readers, have ever encountered. It’s that simple. No topic is more important than the assessment and understanding of failure. Amy Edmondson has broken entirely new ground; and for those who take the trouble, I no less than guarantee Right Kind of Wrong will be a “game-changer.” The result of serious study and application of this tome will be one of the most important steps in your professional life.” -- Tom Peters, bestselling author of In Search of Excellence and Tom Peters Compact Guide to Excellence

About the Author

Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School, renowned for her research on psychological safety over twenty years. Her award-winning work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Psychology Today, Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and more. Named by Thinkers50 in 2021 as the #1 Management Thinker in the world, Edmondson's Ted Talk "How to Turn a Group of Strangers into a Team" has been viewed over three million times. She received her PhD, AM, and AB from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is the author of Right Kind of Wrong, The Fearless Organization, and Teaming.

Kathe Mazur has narrated many audiobooks, winning the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, being named a finalist for the Audie Award in 2013 and 2015, and winning several AudioFile Earphones Awards. As an actress, she can be seen as DDA Hobbs on The Closer and in the upcoming Major Crimes. She has worked extensively in film, theater, and television, including appearances on Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, House, Brothers and Sisters, Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, ER, Monk, and many others.

--This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BTZT9CXV
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Atria Books (September 5, 2023)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2023
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5962 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 361 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #108,501 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #8 in Occupational & Organizational Psychology (Kindle Store)
- #26 in Workplace Behavior
- #49 in Occupational & Organizational Popular Psychology

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4.5 275 ratings

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Amy C. Edmondson

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Amy C. Edmondson is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at the Harvard Business School. Her work explores teaming – the dynamic forms of collaboration needed in environments characterized by uncertainty and ambiguity. She has also studied the role of psychological safety in teamwork and innovation. Before her academic career, she was Director of Research at Pecos River Learning Centers, where she worked with founder and CEO Larry Wilson to design change programs in large companies. In the early 1980s, she worked as Chief Engineer for architect/inventor Buckminster Fuller, and innovation in the built environment remains an area of enduring interest and passion.

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Steve Berczuk

The Nuance Behind "Fail Fast" and How to Learn from Failure

Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2023

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I learned so much reading The Right Kind of Wrong. Edmondson explains how to prevent basic failures, how to create a space for intelligent failures and how to accept the inevitability of mistakes and failures of all kinds in the contexts of business, science, and -- unexpectedly -- family life. I was amazed at how well Edmondson illustrated a concept by alternating examples each of four different contexts: manufacturing, scientific innovation, medicine, and family.

Reading the book you will learn how to build resilience as well as perhaps correct some misconceptions you had about the value of failure. For example: we learn that a fail fast mindset makes sense only when you’ve put some thought into what you are trying (to just “try stuff” is the wrong kind of wrong”). Likewise the pulling the Andon cord in a factory (ala The Toyota Production System) isn’t stopping the line immediately but rather signaling that there may be an issue and starting the process of investigation.

Fear of failure and fear of rejection because you identified a failure (yours or one elsewhere in the system) is ingrained. It’s only by understanding that we won’t get it right all the time will we be able to improve and innovate. And this book is a guide to navigating that learning.

Parents, managers, and individuals and individual contributors in all fields are likely to find something useful here. If want to know how to be better at accepting, and growing from, the inevitable uncertainties and failures in life and work, or want to learn how to create systems that better enable others do this this, The Right Kind of Wrong is worth a read!

5 people found this helpful

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Jeyner Arango

To err is human

Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2024

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The book does reframe failure in a positive growth learning way and provides a framework for identifying the types of errors, their origin, and ways to address them inside the system where they originated.

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Mark Rapier - Author of The Leader With A Thousand Faces, A Personal Study of Leadership

Innovation requires experimentation and failure. Failing well is essential to long-term success.

Reviewed in the United States on December 10, 2023

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There have been many articles and presentations on the importance of recognizing that innovation involves experimentation. And experimentation involves failure. What is important is to follow the discipline of scientific discovery – observe, hypothesize, predict, experiment, and analyze the results.
Amy Edmondson provides a crucial framework that enables us to create systems that allow and reward good failures while avoiding the types of mistakes that neither add value nor useful knowledge. She identifies three types of failures. Basic failures are easily avoided with care, diligence, and training. Complex failures result from the compounding effect of a series of small mistakes. Intelligent failures result from intentional actions, with an understanding of the risks, and plans for responding to the expected array of outcomes. Creating an environment that enables intelligent failures requires a systems thinking approach to help assess the results of experiments so responses can be rapid and effective.
In the introduction, Edmondson shares that, after working with hundreds of people in varied organizations, she began to “see patterns that yielded a new topology of failure.” This is similar to the experience that led me to write The Leader With A Thousand Faces. I worked with several hundred companies and over a thousand leaders at all levels of their organizations.
--- Mark Rapier author of The Leader With A Thousand Faces, A Personal Study of Leadership

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Urs

A must read for any manager (or parent!)

Reviewed in the United States on September 13, 2023

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I love this book!

Amy Edmondson has distilled decades of research to offer us a fresh perspective on failure. Her book helps us not only distinguish between good and bad failures but also provides valuable insights on preventing the latter and extracting productive lessons from the former. This book holds relevance not only in leadership settings but also in our personal lives, including parenting. It successfully blends academic rigor with practicality, entertainment, and actionable advice.

Edmondson's elegant model, encompassing (1) Aversion => Re-framing, (2) Confusion => Understanding the Framework, and (3) Fear => Psychological Safety, provides a structured approach to embracing failure and learning from it. It equips all of us with a more organized way of thinking about how to navigate failures effectively. Whether you're a manager seeking to lead by example or a parent aiming to instill resilience in your children, this book is a must-read!

9 people found this helpful

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Kindle Customer

Excellent framework for understanding failiours

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2024

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The book gives good context to the hype of failing fast and often. Take a step back look at the contex and the system you are operating in.

As always well documented and well written book.

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kbondale

Great research and a good summary of key learnings from Amy's earlier books!

Reviewed in Canada on October 21, 2023

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Amy's latest book builds on her research on psychological safety and successful teaming to dig deep into the subject of failure and she does a great job of differentiating intelligent failures (the kind that we learn from and expect on the path to achieving goals) from others.

Lots of good case studies and very readable - highly recommended!

Rodrigo Delgado

valioso libro sobre la ventaja de experimentación

Reviewed in Mexico on October 10, 2023

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Es el segundo libro que leo de la autora. Me parece un título muy interesante sobre la importancia de tomar riesgos de forma inteligente y tomar los errores como oportunidad de crecimiento.

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linda vernon

durable, quality at a value for money price.prompt delivery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 13, 2024

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durable, quality at a value for money price.prompt delivery

One person found this helpful

Frank Calberg

Right kind of wrong

Reviewed in Germany on January 21, 2024

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Takeaways from reading the book:

- Page 18: We need to accept ourselves as fallible human beings.
- Page 27: People, who are higher up in the hierarchy, are more likely to blame factors other than themselves compared to those with less power.
- Page 91: Punishing people for making mistakes increases the likelihood of failure because people will not admit mistakes.
- Page 110: When someone, who works for Toyota, spots a problem, she or he pulls a cord above her or his workstation to prevent the problem from compounding. The cord conveys the message "We want to hear from you."
- Page 112: To learn and reduce mistakes, record yourself using audio / video.
- Pages 113 and 114: The most effective hospital teams can report errors without fear of being blamed. Also in aviation, anyone can report an error without the name of the person who made the error. Regulations guarantee that information is confidential, voluntary and non-punitive. Blameless reporting is part of a coordinated learning system.
- Page 159: Thanking people for taking the micro risk of speaking up without certainty periodically averts serious accidents.
- Page 175: People learn less from being given information about what they get wrong than about what they get right. Success feedback is more effective than failure feedback.
- Page 196: Choose learning over knowing.
- Page 196: Give yourself permission to be human.
- Page 201: When you are working on a task where the purpose is learning, then avoid focusing on execution and feeling that you are supposed to know the answers to everything. Instead, experiment and learn.
- Page 246: To create a system of innovation enabling failures to turn into brilliant products, declare that you want a significant portion of revenues to come from new and different products, courses or experiences.
- Page 206: When a situation is new for you, avoid treating that situation as predictable / consistent / a routine situation. New situations bring more uncertainty and therefore require your full attention.
- Page 269: People like others more, not less, when they disclose vulnerabilities. This is partly because we respect their courage.

2 people found this helpful

ANNA SIRKIA

Comprado nuevo llega en un estado deplorable

Reviewed in Spain on December 14, 2023

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