Learning From Failures

Learning from Failures provides techniques to explore the root causes of specific disasters and how we can learn from them. It focuses on a number of well-known case studies, including: the sinking of the Titanic; the BP Texas City incident; the Chernobyl disaster; the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia accident; the Bhopal disaster; and the Concorde accident. This title is an ideal teaching aid, informed by the author’s extensive teaching and practical experience and including a list of learning outcomes at the beginning of each chapter, detailed derivation, and many solved examples for modeling and decision analysis. This book discusses the value in applying different models as mental maps to analyze disasters. The analysis of these case studies helps to demonstrate how subjectivity that relies on opinions of experts can be turned into modeling approaches that can ensure repeatability and consistency of results. The book explains how the lessons learned by studying these individual cases can be applied to a wide range of industries. This work is an ideal resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students, and will also be useful for industry professionals who wish to avoid repeating mistakes that resulted in devastating consequences. Explores the root cause of disasters and various preventative measures Links theory with practice in regard to risk, safety, and reliability analyses Uses analytical techniques originating from reliability analysis of equipment failures, multiple criteria decision making, and artificial intelligence domains

Much of the knowledge used to design, build, and operate engineered facilities and products is gained by learning from failures. As catastrophic building failures become ever more costly, this book helps readers understand key issues, from determining the causes of failure and isolating failed parts to lessening personal liability through proper contracting, planning, and management.

Numerous advances in basic research, surgical techniques, practice, and patient care have revolutionized surgery over the last 60 years and made the field with its many subspecialties more diverse but also more complex. The surgical profession places high demands on surgeons who must often make the right split-second decisions. This can easily lead to misjudgments or mistakes. Learning From Failures in Orthopedic Trauma—Key Points for Success is the first book of its kind to give surgeons the opportunity to learn from failures without making them themselves. Based on the Spanish book Errores en la Osteosíntesis by Rafael Orozco Delclós, this publication offers real case examples that have been collected over the past 25 years. It is an essential and valuable resource as it specifically examines the reasons and responses to surgical error in real cases from different anatomical regions of the body, thus helping surgeons avoid the most frequent errors in osteosynthesis. The collection of more than 70 cases will help surgeons recognize and avoid common failures, start reflecting in action, present failures as positive learning opportunities, and bring that knowledge into their daily practice. The book is divided into 9 sections that analyze different types of failures. Key features are: Analysis of failures to help surgeons avoid making mistakes that lead to those errors More than 20 detailed and illustrative case-based chapters that analyze failures and offer tips to successfully prevent those mistakes More than 1,100 x-rays, clinical images, and illustrations

Unlike other volumes in the current literature, this book provides insight for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary researchers and practitioners on what doesn’t work. Documenting detailed case studies of project failure matters, not only as an illustration of experienced challenges but also as projects do not always follow step-by-step protocols of preconceived and theorised processes. Bookended by a framing introduction by the editors and a conclusion written by Julie Thompson Klein, each chapter ends with a reflexive section that synthesizes lessons learned and key take-away points for the reader. Drawing on a wide range of international case studies and with a strong environmental thread throughout, the book reveals a range of failure scenarios for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects, including: • Projects that did not get off the ground; • Projects that did not have the correct personnel for specified objectives; • Projects that did not reach their original objectives but met other objectives; • Projects that failed to anticipate important differences among collaborators. Illustrating causal links in real life projects, this volume will be of significant relevance to scholars and practitioners looking to overcome the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research.

Conquer the most essential adaptation to the knowledge economy The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth offers practical guidance for teams and organizations who are serious about success in the modern economy. With so much riding on innovation, creativity, and spark, it is essential to attract and retain quality talent—but what good does this talent do if no one is able to speak their mind? The traditional culture of “fitting in” and “going along” spells doom in the knowledge economy. Success requires a continuous influx of new ideas, new challenges, and critical thought, and the interpersonal climate must not suppress, silence, ridicule or intimidate. Not every idea is good, and yes there are stupid questions, and yes dissent can slow things down, but talking through these things is an essential part of the creative process. People must be allowed to voice half-finished thoughts, ask questions from left field, and brainstorm out loud; it creates a culture in which a minor flub or momentary lapse is no big deal, and where actual mistakes are owned and corrected, and where the next left-field idea could be the next big thing. This book explores this culture of psychological safety, and provides a blueprint for bringing it to life. The road is sometimes bumpy, but succinct and informative scenario-based explanations provide a clear path forward to constant learning and healthy innovation. Explore the link between psychological safety and high performance Create a culture where it’s “safe” to express ideas, ask questions, and admit mistakes Nurture the level of engagement and candor required in today’s knowledge economy Follow a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organization Shed the “yes-men” approach and step into real performance. Fertilize creativity, clarify goals, achieve accountability, redefine leadership, and much more. The Fearless Organization helps you bring about this most critical transformation.

Just as pilots and doctors improve by studying crash reports and postmortems, experience designers can improve by learning how customer experience failures cause products to fail in the marketplace. Rather than proselytizing a particular approach to design, Why We Fail holistically explores what teams actually built, why the products failed, and how we can learn from the past to avoid failure ourselves.

Explore why — now more than ever — the world is in a race to become data-driven, and how you can learn from examples of data-driven leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI In Fail Fast, Learn Faster: Lessons in Data-Driven Leadership in an Age of Disruption, Big Data, and AI, Fortune 1000 strategic advisor, noted author, and distinguished thought leader Randy Bean tells the story of the rise of Big Data and its business impact – its disruptive power, the cultural challenges to becoming data-driven, the importance of data ethics, and the future of data-driven AI. The book looks at the impact of Big Data during a period of explosive information growth, technology advancement, emergence of the Internet and social media, and challenges to accepted notions of data, science, and facts, and asks what it means to become "data-driven." Fail Fast, Learn Faster includes discussions of: The emergence of Big Data and why organizations must become data-driven to survive Why becoming data-driven forces companies to "think different" about their business The state of data in the corporate world today, and the principal challenges Why companies must develop a true "data culture" if they expect to change Examples of companies that are demonstrating data-driven leadership and what we can learn from them Why companies must learn to "fail fast and learn faster" to compete in the years ahead How the Chief Data Officer has been established as a new corporate profession Written for CEOs and Corporate Board Directors, data professional and practitioners at all organizational levels, university executive programs and students entering the data profession, and general readers seeking to understand the Information Age and why data, science, and facts matter in the world in which we live, Fail Fast, Learn Faster p;is essential reading that delivers an urgent message for the business leaders of today and of the future.

A year's worth of management wisdom, all in one place. We've reviewed the ideas, insights, and best practices from the past year of Harvard Business Review to keep you up-to-date on the most cutting-edge, influential thinking driving business today. With authors from Thomas H. Davenport to Michael E. Porter and company examples from Facebook to DHL, this volume brings the most current and important management conversations right to your fingertips. This book will inspire you to: Make stronger connections and build greater trust among people who work on multiple teams Engage customers and employees alike with the help of artificial intelligence Channel your outrage about sexual harassment in the workplace into effective action Consider how CEO activism can generate goodwill for your company--and weigh its risks Pair data with qualitative research to increase diversity in your organization Remain competitive in a hub economy by using your company's assets and capabilities differently This collection of articles includes: "The Overcommitted Organization," by Mark Mortensen and Heidi K. Gardner; "Why Do We Undervalue Competent Management?" by Raffaella Sadun, Nicholas Bloom, and John Van Reenen; "'Numbers Take Us Only So Far,'" by Maxine Williams; "The New CEO Activists," by Aaron K. Chatterji and Michael W. Toffel; "Artificial Intelligence for the Real World," by Thomas H. Davenport and Rajeev Ronanki; "Why Every Organization Needs an Augmented Reality Strategy," by Michael E. Porter and James E. Heppelmann; "Thriving in the Gig Economy," by Gianpiero Petriglieri, Susan Ashford, and Amy Wrzesniewski; "Managing Our Hub Economy," by Marco Iansiti and Karim R. Lakhani; "The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture," by Boris Groysberg, Jeremiah Lee, Jesse Price, and J. Yo-Jud Cheng; "The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership," by Joseph L. Bower and Lynn S. Paine; and "Now What?" by Joan C. Williams and Suzanne Lebsock.