[P2P-F] Fwd: Harnessing the power of failure

Thu Apr 7 16:26:58 CEST 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michelle Smith <admin at triarchypress.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 8:49 PM
Subject: Harnessing the power of failure
To: michelsub2004 at gmail.com

        Dear Michel

Last month, our bulletin quoted from one of our publications, *Ten Things To
Do In A Conceptual Emergency*:

*It is possible to face up to challenge and grow with and through it.
Changed circumstances can be seized as opportunities for creative engagement
and, rather than generating resistance, generate a step change in learning
and growth.*

This philosophy of looking for opportunities within challenges also
underpins our new book, *The Failure Files*.

Too often, the word ‘failure’ signals an end point or a final judgement. We
are afraid that admitting to mistakes would be to admit to failure in
general. This happens in our personal lives, but also to figures in public
life, to workers in organisations and to governments (just think of the
inconsistencies inherent in the Prime Minister’s statement that the banks
are ‘too big to fail’).

*How can we – as individuals, groups and societies – acknowledge our
mistakes, and turn the challenges of failure into a process of learning,
growth and, ultimately, success?*

*The Failure Files *is a series of essays that grew out of an RSA project
formed in 2009 with the aim of providing a platform from which to explore
the power of failure. The book and the project bring together leaders from
very different areas of expertise to discuss how the concept of failure
operates on many levels. They remind us how important failure is for
achievement, and particularly for creativity, innovation and building
adaptive and sustainable systems. As David Hillson, the book’s editor and
leading thinker/practitioner in risk management, writes:

*We must have a healthy respect for failure, in the same way we might have
for other powerful forces of nature. And, as with those forces, we should be
willing to harness that power to achieve more for society.*

To read more about *The Failure Files*, its contents, the authors and their
areas of expertise, visit *the book’s page on our
website<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/The-Failure-Files.htm>
*

SPECIAL OFFER ~ A FURTHER 25% DISCOUNT ON ALL TITLES

~ ENTER CODE NL25 AT THE TRIARCHY PRESS CHECKOUT ~

The *Red Stripe* innovation project at *The Economist *was perceived by many
at the time as a failure, at least in its task to produce a workable new
web-based product.  However, the insights afforded by the project into
teamwork, innovation, customer internet usage, marketing etc. are invaluable
for companies and institutions of all types and sizes.

Our colleague Andrew Carey was invited to watch the process unfold, and his
observations were later published in the book *Inside Project Red
Stripe*. Considering failure
from a new perspective, what is most striking about the book is Andrew's
implicit recognition that the mistakes, misjudgements and errors the project
team made along the way were, in many ways, the project's strongest assets.
The book is loosely structured, as a series of essays or themed diary
entries, but what provides its focus are the lists of 'Dilemmas' that appear
at the end of most sections. Asking reflective and poignant questions,
sometimes making humorous observations, often relating specific problems to
wider themes, what are these dilemmas but vital learning opportunities? And
wouldn't the real failure be to fail to revisit them?

Read more about Project Red Stripe
here<http://www.triarchypress.co.uk/pages/book15.htm>

-------------------------------

*About Triarchy Press*

Triarchy Press <http://www.triarchypress.co.uk/pages/triarchy.htm> is an
independent publisher of books and pamphlets, focusing on organisations, how
they work and the way we work in them.

admin at triarchypress.com ~ www.triarchypress.com

<http://www.triarchypress.com/pages/The-Failure-Files.htm>

*About the RSA and its
'Glory of Failure' project*

When the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and
Commerce (RSA) was established over 250 years ago it was conceived as 'a
cradle of enlightenment thinking'. Today the RSA is powerful force for
social progress, committed to removing the barriers to that progress. What
could be a larger barrier than a fear of failure?

The Glory of Failure project started with a hypothesis: Failure, at its
heart, is a personal thing. By shining light on the stories of those people
who have experienced failure and emerged stronger for that experience, we
might, in our own small way, be able to chip away at our collective fear of
failure.

<http://www.triarchypress.co.uk/pages/book15.htm>

*Andrew Carey *has spent his working life in publishing, and the last five
years with us at Triarchy. He edits, promotes and writes books that approach
the subject of organisational learning from new, interesting and sometimes
quirky perspectives. In addition to Project Red Stripe, he co-authored *Systems
Thinking for Curious Managers *with Russ Ackoff.

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