Most people will agree that there is always something to learn from one’s failures. However, the act of deriving new insights from failure is no simple task. This is especially true for organizations – while it is difficult for an individual to come to new realizations from their failure experiences, a more complex process is involved when a group of individuals try to derive new assets from their shortcomings. Many of those in leadership positions understand the value of learning from failure, yet there are few organizations with established strategies to identify and analyze shortcomings in a detailed and effective manner. 

This report will discuss several key issues to consider when developing failure learning strategies for organizations based on the ideas proposed in Professor Edmondson’s report 『Strategies for Learning from Failure』 (which was published in the Harvard Business Review) as well as the views of Professor Yotaro Hatamura, the father of failure studies in Japan. 

The first part will dive into the spectrum of causes behind failures in companies and organizations and the character- istics of such failures under this context.
The following section will provide an overview of the charac- teristics of failure data and examine various elements that organizations should consider during the process of learning from failures.
Lastly, by encompassing the ideas brought forth in the previous two sections, the report will conclude by offering suggestions regarding the roles of leaders when promoting the failure learning process in an organization