Fail Better in 2024: Two Books to Help Overcome Your Fear of Failure

Nobody’s perfect and everyone makes mistakes. The key to coming out on top is knowing when – and how – to mess up.

Two award-winning books by two of the world’s top management thinkers, Amy Edmondson and Andrew McAfee, both featured in Financial Times’ “How to Embrace Misfires, Setbacks and Flops,” reveal how businesses and leaders can make the most of their meltdowns. Highly sought by organizations around the world for their expert guidance, Edmondson and McAfee’s tips for rapid experimentation help teams transform their challenges into opportunities for growth and become more agile and creative in the process.

Amy Edmondson: Transforming Failure into Success

Rated the #1 management expert by Thinkers50 for the second time, Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson‘s groundbreaking work redefines failure as a crucial component of success. Known for originating the concept of psychological safety in the workplace, Edmondson’s latest book, “Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well,” equips organizations with a framework for turning setbacks into strategic advantages. Emphasizing the importance of understanding different types of failures to foster growth and innovation, this landmark work was named Financial Times and Schroeder’s Business Book of the Year 2023. As she explains to Big Think, embracing failure doesn’t just bring about great advancements – it increases joy as well.

Andrew McAfee: Embracing “Geeky Leadership” for Breakthroughs

Openness is a key component of “geeky leadership,” says MIT principal research scientist and New York Times bestselling author Andrew McAfee in his latest book, “The Geek Way: The Radical Mindset that Drives Extraordinary Results” (2023). Named a best book of 2023 by The Economist, this essential guide decodes the “geeky leadership” ethos and empowers organizations to be agile, innovative and scale massively in a quickly-evolving landscape. His insights into AI, especially the business use cases for generative AI, and other trends reshaping leadership, management and competition have earned him multiple recognitions by Thinkers50, by which he was just honored for a sixth time.

How quickly an organization can experiment, make mistakes, regroup and recover is often what gives it an edge over the competition. Amy Edmondson and Andrew McAfee provide a roadmap for successful innovation, helping businesses not only adapt but excel in a constantly evolving landscape.

Organizations that harness the power of rapid experimentation and learn from their failures are the ones that lead the pack. Stern Strategy Group connects you with renowned thought leaders whose insights, strategies and management frameworks help organizations fuel growth and disruptive innovation to better compete in a constantly changing world. Let us arrange for these esteemed experts to advise your organization via virtual and in-person consulting sessions, workshops and keynotes.