Research Hit: Do We Learn From Failure?

Data from heart surgeons shows there are optimal zones for learning from failure

Well, logically we would learn from failure, no?

Well, logical yes, but often research shows that our assumptions are incorrect and this research shows some interesting nuances to this question.

Now, I’m intrigued, explain more

The results of this research are absolutely fascinating I think, and have implications for education and business. But it is also an interesting piece of research because it is looking at failure and learning in quite an elite group of people: heart surgeons nonetheless!

Wow, heart surgeons - hopefully they don’t fail very often!

Well unfortunately they do fail, everybody fails and these are highly complex but high stakes scenarios. Failure in these cases often leads to the death of a patient which can have a high emotional toll. But it is in the nature of being a heart surgeon!

OK, and what did the researchers find out about learning from failure?

First, let’s understand the dataset: Sunkee Lee and Jisoo Parks took data from 307 California-based cardiothoracic surgeons who performed coronary artery bypass graft surgeries in 133 hospitals between 2003 and 2018. So that is large group and over a long period and included 4446 observations.

What is fascinating is that there are two variables that influence how much these surgeons learnt from their mistakes and I would strongly assume that this also applies to all of us in all contexts.