Black Box Thinking: Growth Mindset and the Secrets of High Performance

by Matthew Syed

If we edit out failure, if we reframe our mistakes, we are effectively destroying one of the most precious learning opportunities that exists.

Cognitive dissonance occurs when mistakes are too threatening to admit to, so they are reframed or ignored. This can be thought of as the internal fear of failure: how we struggle to admit mistakes to ourselves.

Steve Jobs, a master in the art of merging concepts, once said: ‘Creativity is just connecting things.’ If failure sparks creativity into life, the moment of insight invariably emerges from the attempt to bridge the problem with previously unconnected ideas or technologies.

failure is a blessing, not a curse.

In effect, the mistaken idea that success is an instant phenomenon destroys resilience.

we progress fastest when we face up to failure – and learn from it.

A pre-mortem typically starts with the leader asking everyone in the team to imagine that the project has gone horribly wrong and to write down the reasons why on a piece of paper.