Matthew Syed

What links the Mercedes Formula One team with Google? What links Dave Braisford's Team Sky and the aviation industry? What is the connection between the inventor James Dyson and the footballer David Beckham? They are all Black Box Thinkers. Whether developing a new product, honing a core skill or just trying to get a critical decision right, Black Box Thinkers aren't afraid to face up to mistakes. In fact, they see failure as the very best way to learn. Rather than denying their mistakes, blaming others or attempting to spin their way out of trouble, these institutions and individuals interrogate errors as part of their future strategy for success. How many of us, hand on heart, can say that we have such a healthy relationship with failure? Learning from failure has the status of a cliché, but this book reveals the astonishing story behind the most powerful method of learning known to mankind, and reveals the arsenal of techniques wielded by some of the world's most innovative organizations. Their lessons can be applied across every field - from sport to education, from business to health. Using gripping case studies, exclusive interviews and really practical takeaways, Matthew Syed - the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Bounce - explains how to turn failure into success, and shows us how we can all become better Black Box Thinkers.

Black Box Thinking

Cassandra Tang

A progressive attitude to failure turns out to be a cornerstone of success for any institution.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.

Practice is not a substitute for learning from real-world failure, it is complementary to it. They are, in many ways, two sides of the same coin.

To leverage the power of failure, you have to be resilient and open. In other words, you have to have the right mindset as well as the right system. If you run away from mistakes, you won’t get anywhere.

True knowledge is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.

Black Box Thinking quotes

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