If how much you learn is directly correlated to how much you fail, how do organizations crack the science behind using failure to their advantage?

Pascal Finette is the co-founder of Radical, an advisory firm that helps organizations turn disruption into competitive advantage. He’s also the author of several books including, Disrupt Disruption: How to Decode the Future, Disrupt Your Industry, and Transform Your Business and OUTLEARN: The Art of Learning Faster Than the World Can Change.

In this episode, Pascal shares with Greg the lessons he picked up working for Mozilla, reframing failure as the “first attempt in learning,” the importance of psychological safety in the workplace, and what organizations can do to make learning cheap and fast.

*unSILOed Podcast is produced by University FM.*

Why assumptions fall apart

06:11: The challenge I have is that we build so much of our lives and our products and services we design on assumptions. And because we feel like it is too hard to test these assumptions, we just bake them in as factual knowledge. And then, once they hit reality, they do not survive the contact with reality, and they fall apart. So, it behooves us to figure out what our assumptions are and figure out a way to test those assumptions the quickest, cheapest, easiest way.

The formula for faster learning

07:55: The core formula in this book, ‘Outlearn,’ is very simple. It's the speed of learning is inversely proportional to the cost of failure. So make learning cheap, and you learn faster. To do that, and I think that is the big part, is you need to figure out what you are actually testing and break it down into smaller components.

On focusing on learning, not failure

11:17: Language is really important, and I think there is this piece where you want to slow down a tiny bit and just think about, "What did we learn?" instead of the failing part. Because learning anchors stuff in your prefrontal cortex, the creative part of your brain.

Recommended Resources:

• Firefox
• Amy Edmondson
• Obi Felten
• Pandora (service)
• Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary by Geoffrey Cain
• Dashun Wang, Google Scholar

Guest Profile:

• Staff Profile at radical
• Professional Website
• Professional Profile on LinkedIn

Guest Work:

• Disrupt Disruption: How to Decode the Future, Disrupt Your Industry, and Transform Your Business
• OUTLEARN: The Art of Learning Faster Than the World Can Change
• 960: A short book about the time you have left

If you enjoyed this show, here are some other unSILOed episodes you may like:

• How To Fail The Right Way with Amy Edmondson

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