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Embracing and Learning from Failure

#106

How do you feel about your failures? Do you fail enough? If we are all supposed to fail fast, what’s the best way of doing it? What do you think of Colgate Lasagna, New Coke or Google Glass? These are just 3 of 100+ failed products featured in The Museum of Failure, ‘a collection of failed products and services from around the world’ with the goal of providing visitors with a learning experience and insight into ‘the risky business of innovation’. This week, we sit down to talk to Dr. Samuel West, Organizational Psychologist and Curator of The Museum of Failure, about how failure, but more importantly how failing mindfully, is essential to progress. We talk about an organization’s culture and effect on exploration and experimentation, principle patterns of failure (or lack thereof), and to keep true to the theme of the Mr. Beacon podcast, we also discuss whether the Bluetooth beacon ecosystem should be regarded as a failure.