Want Them to Learn Quickly? Let Them Make Mistakes

Failure is a great teacher.

That’s the summary of recent research by scientists at the University of Exeter. That has some interesting implications in this “self esteem movement” era, when people are not allowed to fail. If you want people to learn something quickly, let them fail quickly. Then get on with it.

Posted on July 2, 2007 by Frank Roche
Filed Under Learning

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Wally Bock 1 year ago 1 point
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Actually it's experience that's the great teacher. You try something. It works or it doesn't and you learn from that. The real issue is that you can't learn much if you don't try stuff.

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Frank Roche 1 year ago 1 point
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Wally, that's even more to the point. Experience is a great teacher.

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Tom Gimbel 1 year ago 1 point
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In our company we hire many recruiters who don't have experience recruiting and teach them how. I firmly believe that in any leadership role you cannot be afraid to let people make mistakes. I agree with Wally and Frank on that. In fact, in building a business or a department, if you don't delegate and allow for failures you will always be held hostage by chores and never have a chance to lead.

Giving people the chance to make mistakes doesn't mean you let them fail. As long as a manager and employee have a positive, open relationship you will be able to work with them to fix the mistakes and build a stronger bond at the same time!

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Frank Roche 1 year ago 1 point
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Hi Tom, what you say is right on the money: You cannot be afraid to let people make mistakes. But that's a tough leadership lesson...I used to talk about Power, Permission and Protection to make management work. Protection is about making it a safe work environment to reach. And as you point out, making mistakes isn't the same as letting them fail. So true!

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