Critical Analysis of Strategy For Learning From Failure
Critical Analysis of Strategy For Learning From Failure by Ajta
Introduction
In Strategy For Learning From Failure, Amy C. Edmondson explain his strategy of how to get benefit from failure and be better. He presents this strategy in the form of a publication in which he shows his opinions about firms’ mistaken approach toward failure and how to fix that wrong. This paper will review Edmondson’s strategy as well as his main arguments, and will evaluate the quality of his writing and focus on weakness within the publication.
Summary
Edmondson’s main purpose in this article is to present and analyze the bad common attitude toward failure and then explain his positive approach to the issue. He begins the article with his thoughts about learning from failure. He insists, “Wisdom of learning from failure is incontrovertible. Yet organizations that do it well are extraordinarily rare.” (p.49). To support this argument, firstly he analyze people’s blaming attitude. He then goes on to categorized failures into three categories: “Preventable failures in predictable operations”, “Unavoidable failures in complex systems”, “Intelligent failures at the frontier” (p.50). After figure out factors that could lead to bad reactions to the failures, Edmondson describes his four steps strategy for effective learning from failure: “Building a Learning Culture” -> “Detecting Failure” -> “Analyzing Failure” -> “Promoting Experimentation” (p.51-54)
Evaluation
This section contains an evaluation of the article. Firstly, although the author offers well-supported arguments, at times some of them appear to lack solid solution to the problem as he admits, “My research has shown that failure analysis is often limited and ineffective-even in complex organizations like hospitals, where human lives are at stake.” (p.54).
Secondly, Edmondson sometimes becomes too verbose in his writing style, which makes it hard for the average reader to understand. One example of this is as follows.
Introduction
In Strategy For Learning From Failure, Amy C. Edmondson explain his strategy of how to get benefit from failure and be better. He presents this strategy in the form of a publication in which he shows his opinions about firms’ mistaken approach toward failure and how to fix that wrong. This paper will review Edmondson’s strategy as well as his main arguments, and will evaluate the quality of his writing and focus on weakness within the publication.
Summary
Edmondson’s main purpose in this article is to present and analyze the bad common attitude toward failure and then explain his positive approach to the issue. He begins the article with his thoughts about learning from failure. He insists, “Wisdom of learning from failure is incontrovertible. Yet organizations that do it well are extraordinarily rare.” (p.49). To support this argument, firstly he analyze people’s blaming attitude. He then goes on to categorized failures into three categories: “Preventable failures in predictable operations”, “Unavoidable failures in complex systems”, “Intelligent failures at the frontier” (p.50). After figure out factors that could lead to bad reactions to the failures, Edmondson describes his four steps strategy for effective learning from failure: “Building a Learning Culture” -> “Detecting Failure” -> “Analyzing Failure” -> “Promoting Experimentation” (p.51-54)
Evaluation
This section contains an evaluation of the article. Firstly, although the author offers well-supported arguments, at times some of them appear to lack solid solution to the problem as he admits, “My research has shown that failure analysis is often limited and ineffective-even in complex organizations like hospitals, where human lives are at stake.” (p.54).
Secondly, Edmondson sometimes becomes too verbose in his writing style, which makes it hard for the average reader to understand. One example of this is as follows.