Modern culture tends to focus on achievements and ignore failures. Mistakes are seen either as a chain of coincidences and a minor deviation from the norm, or, on the contrary, they are overestimated—then a person who made the wrong decision is blamed for incompetence and branded with shame. British journalist Matthew Syed argues that this attitude toward mistakes deprives people and organizations of the ability to benefit from failures, draw the right conclusions, and change what caused the setback.
He examines two systems: healthcare, where it is customary to hide mistakes, and aviation, where the causes of disasters are always made public. Over the long term, Syed shows, this approach to failure leads to certain outcomes—how it affects the development of the system, the people working within it, and the end consumers—us. Syed investigates the origins and consequences of errors in science, technology, law, and sports, reveals the psychological mechanisms behind the concealment of failures, and outlines a path anyone can take to change their attitude toward mistakes and turn them into the foundation of future success.
“As we tell stories of success, we’ll try to find all its components. We’ll uncover and examine the hidden processes that allow us to learn, change, and create—in business, in politics, and in ordinary life. As we will see, in all cases success is explained—unexpectedly and often not very logically—by how we respond to failure.” (Matthew Syed)
Matthew Syed
BLACK BOX THINKING
The Surprising Truth About Success
(and why some people never learn from their mistakes)