Failure for Learning and Growing

Failure For Learning and Growth

Success can come in many different sizes and shapes.  In athletics, it could range from winning a single game to winning the state or world championship.  In business, it could be making the first sale of the year, improving your number of contacts, or increasing your productivity.  In school, it could vary from increasing a grade in a course, to making the honor roll, or getting straight “A’s” on the report card.  However you define success, there are qualities necessary to support you with your journey to achievement.  For the sake of this discussion, I would like to focus on success being growth.  Becoming better at something, in general improvement.

What do you think some of the attributes needed for this definition of success could be?  As I attempt to improve my motivational presentations and grow in my development as a speaker, this is a question I often ponder.  I think about things like having a clear vision of your end product, or having the drive to complete a task.  These qualities are only two of what may be needed to help with your passage of growth and improvement.  I would like to focus upon one particular characteristic I feel is completely necessary for attaining growth and improvement.  For any level and for any endeavor, Failure! Or more to the point a Fear of Failure.

While conducting a teacher evaluation, I was sitting in a middle school language arts classroom observing students learning the finer points of verb object agreement.  I associate with these students on a daily basis, and I find it extremely insightful to observe them as they process information while learning.  I think we can apply the concept of dealing with failure to everyone who is working to develop themselves.  

In this particular situation, I notice one student raising their hand continually with correct and more often incorrect answers.  I also noticed a student who never raised their hand and, in fact, looked for ways not to participate.  It is interesting to note the first student is generally recognized as an average student who seems to work hard to understand and learn.  The second student is known to be one of the brightest students in the school with fantastic grades and strong performance with their testing.  What about growth?

The first student is always willing to put their opinions, thoughts, and answers out for all to inspect and dissect.  On the other hand, the second student rarely offers their insight, and when they do, there seems to be a tentative attitude venturing on almost a backward shyness.  The differing attitudes of these two students peaked my interest so much I decided to visit with them individually.

I asked both students about their reasons for the way they participated in class.  The first student told me they loved to give ideas and to find out if their thinking was correct or not.  I asked how they felt when they gave a wrong answer or if someone happened to disagree with them.  The response I received was very intuitive.  The student told me every time they were wrong was an chance to learn, grow, and get smarter.  If fact this student seemed to thrive on the opportunity to be wrong and to use their “failure” as a springboard to get better.

As a contrast, the second student responded by saying they never liked to be seen as having the wrong answers, or being in a situation where they were asked to defend their thinking.  This student said they had always gotten good grades and felt they were successful.  When asked if they felt they had grown throughout the year, they responded that they did not think so, but it did not matter because their grades were good.

Throughout my career as a coach and an educator, it has become abundantly clear a fear of failing is a stifling entity to developing and growing as a person, student, or a professional.  If we, as educators, administrators, and supervisors, can create an atmosphere in which people feel safe in learning form failure, there is no end to the amount of growth they will be able to experience.  Failing to Learn and Grow…..WOW, cool stuff.