3 Types Of Failures - Which One Is The Right Kind Of Wrong?
3 Types Of Failures - Which One Is The Right Kind Of Wrong?
Inspired from Amy Edmondson' book "Right Kind of Wrong"
What is the difference between a failure and a mistake?
In her book, “Right Kind Of Wrong”, Amy Edmondson says:
Failure = an outcome that deviates from desired results
Mistake = unintended deviation from prespecified standards, procedures, checklists, etc.
Which are the 3 types of failures and which one is the “right kind of wrong”?
Amy splits failures into three types:
Basic failure = mistake that occurs in a known territory, knowledge exists about how to achieve a desired result
Example: missing an important phone call because you forgot to charge the phone and the battery is off
Complex failure = has multiple causes and happens in a familiar setup; the various factors interact in unexpected ways
Example: you arrive 30 minutes later to a doctor's appointment and the doctor cannot see you anymore as he had an emergency in the meanwhile
Intelligent failures (“the right kind of wrong”) = thoughtful hypotheses not supported by data. They are also praiseworthy because they are necessary building blocks of discovery. They take place in a new territory.
Example: experimenting with a new recipe that looks delicious qualifies as an intelligent failure when it turns out to taste awful :)
Example: a design sprint that ends with the decision that the product will not be built
Uncertainty versus Preventability and Failures
I particularly liked the mapping of different failures in Amy’s book about uncertainty and preventability.
Here is a visualization for it, created with Drawify:
Bottom lines:
We all have failures. And it’s human to be frustrated, sometimes even ashamed out of them. If we were conscious about what kind of failure we had, how to learn from it, and what we could do differently next time, the situation will be different because we project for it already.
Resources:
Book “Right Kind Of Wrong” by Amy Edmondson