Learning from failures

Failures present valuable opportunities for learning only when there is no blaming or shaming of individuals. What may initially appear to be a foolish oversight often reveals systemic issues. A common cause is placing inexperienced personnel under unrealistic time pressures—neither of which can be resolved in the short term. This can lead decision-makers to treat complex systems as if they were linear or simplistic, ignoring interconnected factors and feedback loops [The Logic Of Failure]. People often focus on immediate outcomes without considering long-term or indirect effects, resulting in burnout, stress, and demotivation [Death March].

If failures were treated as insights that help uncover the mysteries of the physical world, they might even become occasions for celebration—because each failure reveals something new. They could be thoroughly analyzed and shared widely so that everyone benefits. Of course, this requires a reality-based culture of critical thinking, rather than a rush to find someone to blame—whether to feel good about ourselves or crush our rivals—until the next mishap. The road to most engineering catastrophes is paved with cover-ups of smaller mistakes.

The best examples of failure analysis come from the aviation industry, where even seemingly outrageous mistakes [Aeroflot Flight 593, Pakistan Airlines 8303] are traced back to systemic root causes like problematic hiring processes and insufficient training.

Music: Adelita (classical guitar)