Fail Better: Design Smart Mistakes and Succeed Sooner

CHAPTER 6

Embed the Learning

Imagine how you feel on the day your team turns in its deliverables. Finally! This is a moment to savor.

Yet, as you send off those last emails, clean up your electronic files, and tidy up your desk—even as your attention is already turning to the project that’s waiting in the wings, perhaps already under way—you can’t help but think that you might be missing something important. Thanks to all you invested in the project, you now have a vivid, if somewhat inchoate, sense of what worked and what didn’t this time around. This hints at the potential for improvement on many fronts, from project management to team process to the design of activities.

But, if you’re like most people, these nascent insights will not be effectively ...