Recently, I've noticed a surge in discussion about fostering a positive culture of error and failure. As an educator and manager, I've long struggled to make the case that error and failure are inevitable companions in any learning or innovation context. Yet trendy approaches to this concept often prioritise quick fixes, while a top-down "culture of failure" tends to create enormous internal pressures - especially in conservative environments such as Italian universities and public administration. Here, mistakes are still deeply associated with failure, fear and the instinct to assign blame. No one wants to make mistakes, let alone admit them.

Recent research suggests that failure - whether experienced in educational, professional or personal contexts - is often difficult to learn from (Carlson and Fishbach, 2024). While previous studies have attributed this difficulty primarily to the self-threatening nature of failure, such as the emotional discomfort it causes, recent findings highlight additional cognitive barriers. These barriers stem from the perception that failure lacks useful information, making it more difficult to learn valuable lessons. Such challenges can arise both in the process of striving to achieve current goals and in deciding whether to set and pursue new goals. To address these psychological barriers, interventions designed to improve learning from failure need to target these different stages of goal pursuit.

Disruption isn't about glorifying failure.

Disruption doesn't glorify failure. You don't automatically learn from it. If every failure led to success, the world would be full of winners. The ubiquitous mantra - "you have to fail often to succeed" - is deeply ingrained in the narratives of psychologists, managers and educators. But is repeating this mantra enough? Not really. Innovation may require a willingness to fail, but allowing mistakes doesn't guarantee success. Nor can a culture of failure be imposed; it must grow organically.

The distinction between mistakes that promote learning and those that don't is crucial. Consider a child who touches a hot stove. The resulting burn ensures that the child doesn't repeat the mistake - it's a powerful, visceral lesson. But this kind of learning doesn't translate directly to professional or educational contexts, where mistakes often result in negative feedback rather than natural consequences. The difference, as Eskreis-Winkler and Fishbach (2019; 2022) found, is in the way the feedback is framed. When negative feedback follows a mistake, it rarely leads to learning. Conversely, when positive feedback follows a correct action, it is much more effective in reinforcing the behaviour. Carlson and Fishbach (2024) explain that the emotional sting and cognitive barriers associated with failure often prevent individuals from learning its lessons. In particular, when failure is perceived as uninformative or a threat to self-worth, individuals are less likely to engage with it or learn from it. Indeed, the threat of failure erects emotional barriers to learning from failure, causing people to respond to failure in ways that preserve their self-views at the expense of learning new information (Eskreis-Winkler & Fishbach, 2022). 

Information processing and a positive error culture

Research shows that we respond more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive ones. Negative feedback triggers deeper information processing, making it more memorable (Bless & Fiedler, 2006; Puig & Szpunar, 2017). However, Carlson and Fishbach (2024) emphasise that negative criticism can feel like an attack on self-worth, fostering resistance and reducing motivation. To address this, feedback needs to avoid undermining psychological safety and instead promote self-worth, openness and a willingness to face challenges.

Creating safe spaces for mistakes

Preparing learners (and educators) or organisations for the future is always an emotional process. Success often teaches us less than failure, but to create meaningful change we need to go beyond slogans. How do we create those 'aha' moments that open the door to real innovation? One solution is to create well-defined, protected spaces for trial and error - environments where failure is possible without punitive consequences. Mistakes can be addressed transparently, for example in team retrospectives, allowing everyone to learn together. Interestingly, vicarious learning - watching others make mistakes or when feedback about mistakes is directed at someone else - can be particularly effective because individuals process and integrate it into their own work without the ego threat often associated with personal failure (Eskreis-Winkler & Fishbach, 2019; 2022). 

Moving towards a positive culture of change

To enable this approach, organisations and educational institutions need meaningful, dynamic goals that encourage exploration and adaptability. It's important to distinguish where mistakes are acceptable and where they must be avoided, creating the boundaries within which innovation can flourish. This helps to create a culture of continuous growth, not one that glorifies failure, but one that recognises its role as a springboard. Carlson and Fishbach (2024) suggest interventions such as reframing failure as a lack of progress rather than a lack of ability, which can change how individuals perceive and respond to setbacks.

This work "Karl Krauss quote" by Maria FABIANI is licensed under All rights reserved

As the Austrian satirist Karl Kraus wisely observed, "Let us beware of becoming stupid through failure". This caution reminds us that failure isn't inherently beneficial - it's what we do with it that counts. In ancient times, people wrote on wax-coated tablets, erasing old writings to create a tabula rasa - a clean slate. This doesn't mean denying past mistakes, but offering the opportunity for a fresh start, based on deeper understanding and a new perspective. Inspired, we can design creative spaces for transformation, where ideas can evolve and flourish without fear of failure. After all, true progress comes from the ability to learn, adapt and move forward.

References

Bless, H., & Fiedler, K. (2006). Mood and the regulation of information processing and behavior. Social Psychology: Handbook of Basic Principles, 2, 65-84.

Carlson, R. W., & Fishbach, A. (2024). Learning from failure. Motivation Science, 10(3), 160–170.

Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2019). Not learning from failure—the greatest failure of all. Psychological Science, 30(12), 1733–1744. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797619881133 

Eskreis-Winkler, L., & Fishbach, A. (2022). You think failure is hard? So is learning from it. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 17(6), 1511–1524. https://doi.org/10.1177/17456916211059817

Puig, L., & Szpunar, K. K. (2017). The value of negative learning experiences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 26(2), 128–133.