Are all mistakes created equal?

? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

Right Kind of Wrong : The Science of Failing Well will help you maximize the benefits of your mistakes. Not all mistakes were born equal, as the introduction of this book by Harvard School Leadership Professor Amy Edmondson shows. Some can literally mean the difference between life and death, while others, not so much. A helpful way to think about the different kinds of mistakes a person can make is the one Edmondson employs: There is simple, complex, and intelligent failure. Luckily, on a day-to-day basis, most mistakes do not have immensely overwhelming consequences. And yet, according to this book, we are left with three uncomfortable feelings when we do fail: Aversion, confusion, and fear. It is only by understanding this “failure landscape” first, which she discusses in part I, that we are able to fail better. Thus, in the second part of her book, Edmondson walks us through how, as inevitably fallible human beings, we can rethink failure by replacing shame and guilt with growth and curiosity. Her writing is uplifting, motivational, and highly needed in a fast-paced world when decision-making and changes are ever-present.