They’re playing it too safe

I came across the following article the other day entitled "The Many Errors in Thinking About Mistakes" it resonated strongly with me in regards to the work I do, the consultancy activities I undertake and the general business decisions I make. Funnily enough I have a quote I carry around that says "Have the courage to fail - if you're not failing, you're not taking enough risks."

This quote is from Mark Burnett - and if you are scratching your head wondering who he is, well he is the creator of the reality TV shows "Survivor" and "The Apprentice" and when you hear his story of how he developed his business from nothing when he first arrived in the US to what he has achieved it really gets you thinking, I also like the shows a little.

The main points I get from the article and quote is that making mistakes is all a part of learning - yet as people in general we are conditioned to not try and make mistakes, which may not be the best thing for us. I believe that this mistake making ties in with creativity and links with what Sir Ken Robinson was talking about in his TED presentation which I blogged about here.

To me creativity and making mistakes go hand in hand, I experiment and test ideas/thoughts/activities and hopefully I end up with something I like. Sometimes it goes wrong, it is what I do when it goes wrong that is the key for me - I need to learn from these experiences and take this learning to help in my next experiment.

Let's make sure we make the most of our mistakes, and not be afraid to make them and that our children do the same thing so that they grow and learn without being afraid of failure, as funny as it seems we need to get over this to truly move forward.

 

Comments

[Rob McTaggart]

You made a spelling mistake ;)
10 years starting, I'm still at university partly thanks to a little thing called perfectionist anxiety, otherwise known as an irrational fear of mistakes. Every work a teacher can make towards helping their students embrace making mistakes is a step towards them reaching their potential. You're totally right when you say that fearing mistakes stifles creativity. Creation is a two-steps-forward, one-step-back affair don't you think?

[Tony]

Hi Rob,

thanks on two fronts - for sharing your fear which is one many suffer and one which I deal with almost daily, I think the fear of failure is what drives me in what I am doing (almost balanced by my passions). It almost comes back to the psychology surrounding how we view ourselves and our self belief that two steps forward is great - but one step back knocks us for a six yet generally after a time we bounce back better for it.

[Darrel]

Hi Tony,
Great post! I've been doing technology integration in schools for almost ten years. Am I too comfortable? Probably? But what I love is all the new learning with ICT, students & teachers. However, it would be true to say I haven't taken a risk in the job arena for a while :)

I also think as 'teachers', we often "play it safe" and with some good reason (Duty of care, parental expectations etc). However, that aside, I believe we also need to change at a systemic level, the 'low trust/more testing regime' in many of our state educational systems encourages us to 'play it safe'.

Perhaps we need to model 'taking responsible risks' in our own learning with students? Great food for thought - thanks.