“One such element is our attitudes towards failure, particularly
when combined with a sense of pride. No one likes to fail, screw
up, or get it wrong, and this in-built sense of pride often causes
us to internalize these failures and prevents us from embracing and
learning from them in our communities. In other words, if we
ham-fist something, for many of us our natural inclination is to
grit our teeth, wish it had never happened, and step-around said
balls-up.“This is particularly tempting for leaders. With many
collaborative communities being meritocracies (in which you develop
respect based on good work as opposed to driving a Bugati Veyron),
the reputations of our leaders are forged out in the open. Our
leaders know that this respect can be lost in a heartbeat, and
there is often a reluctance to admit to, embrace and work on the
opportunities that surround failure.”