What do you do if your team is afraid to learn from failure?

Normalizing failure and creating a culture where learning from failure is embraced requires intentional leadership and communication. Start by openly acknowledging own mistakes and what we have learned from them. Encourage the team to share their failures and the valuable lessons they have gained. Celebrate the process of experimentation and innovation, even when it doesn’t yield the desired outcome. Provide constructive feedback rather than blame when things go wrong, focusing on what can be learned and how to improve moving forward. Foster a growth mindset within the team,emphasizing that failure is a natural part of the learning process & an opportunity for growth & development.

Very few of us know how to fail well. Intellectually, we may know that we need a growth mindset in order to develop, and yet failure remains an experience that is often associated with shame and embarrassment. Redefine failure. Behind many fears is worry about doing something wrong, looking foolish, or not meeting expectations — in other words, fear of failure.

One of the best sources of learning is failure. But for it to be one of the ways teams learn, it is very important that it is seen as something normal, essential to development and innovation. So, by providing a fear free environment, where failure is seen as part of the development process, leaders are creating teams with people that are open to try new ideas, new ways of doing things, always with focus on continuous improvement

Set approach goals (not avoidance goals). Goals can be classified as approach goals or avoidance goals based on whether you are motivated by wanting to achieve a positive outcome or avoid an adverse one.

Create a “fear list.” Author and investor Tim Ferriss recommends “fear-setting,” creating a checklist of what you are afraid to do and what you fear will happen if you do it.

Focus on learning. The chips aren’t always going to fall where you want them to — but if you understand that reality going in, you can be prepared to wring the most value out of the experience, no matter the outcome.

Learn from Industry Leaders: Share case studies or examples of companies that turned failures into successes. Discuss how these organizations adapted, learned, and innovated. Provide Learning Resources: Offer access to workshops, webinars, and books on resilience, creativity, and learning from failure. Encourage team members to invest in their personal development.

A failed attempt is the only evidence of experiential learning which happens to be the most intuitive form. Embracing failure could be frustrating especially when the outcomes have grave consequences. Regardless,in the learning curve you would have mastered the cycle of learning the art and the process flow and in the next attempt could make remarkable progress.