Practical Failure Studies By Yotaro Hatamura Translated by Dong-ho Kim Distributed by Bookshill

The dictionary definition of the word ‘failing’ is ‘being unable to achieve what one intends or being unable to complete one’s goals or plans.’ Upon closer inspection of this definition, we can see that failures are instances that only occur when we intend to do something, set goals, or make some sort of attempt. However, when people, especially young Koreans, accumulate ‘failures’ throughout their journey, they often focus more on the emotion of ‘feeling like a failure’ more than the actual experience of failing to pursue or achieve a goal.

What the World’s Greatest Talents Learn from Failure By Jie Sato Translated by Jeong Hwan Kim 21st Century Books

“Failure Deprived” - the Actual Problem is a Lack of Failure :   Resilience Strengthening Initiatives in U.S. Universities Universities that are focusing on resilience Given the current situation, several U.S. universities have begun to recognize that they need to intervene in this matter. The first school to make a move was Cornell University. The university, where several student suicide incidents took place in 2010, declared that “it is an obligation of the university to help students learn life skills.” Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Pennsylvania soon followed by launching initiatives to develop the resilience of their members. Faced with the reality that many of their brightest students, most of whom grew up under competitiveness environments, were unfamiliar with the natural process of learning from failure, a consensus started to form around the idea that universities needed to fill this void. These programs all aim to help students understand that failure is natural and common while also providing support so that students can learn from their failures and setbacks. Moreover, the programs help members build up their resilience to failure and stress by instilling new perspectives regarding failure and by utilizing a variety of university resources. 

Fail Fast, Fail Often By John Krumboltz and Ryan Babineaux Translated by Doyeon Published by SNOWFOX

The Center for Ambitious Failure (CAF) held a survey in December to get a better picture of how KAISTians view failure. The <KAIST Failure Survey> included questions that asked KAISTians how they would describe their ① fear of failure and their ② psychological capital, which is a measure of one’s psychological capacity to appropriately respond to failure and face challenges. Moreover, the survey attempted gauge qualities such as ③ psychological safety and ④ failure learning behavior, which serve as indicators describing the culture within KAIST of accepting the failures of its members and learning from failure. CAF plans to conduct the survey annually to investigate how these indicators change year by year. The gathered data will be used to assess the effectiveness of efforts aimed at improving the perception of failure in KAIST and building a better campus failure culture.   The first survey was held as an online survey over two weeks from December 27th, 2022 to January 9th, 2023. We received responses from over 700 KAISTians over this period. Among them, a total of 609 responses were included for the final analysis, including responses from 152 undergraduate students (25%), 295 graduate students (48.4%), 40 faculty members (6.6%), and 122 staff members (20%). This month’s newsletter presents a summary of the survey results. 

The Fearless Organization By Amy Edmondson Translated by Yoonyoung Choi Published by Dasan Books

The early years of SpaceX told through 『Liftoff』  and the 10-year journey of Toss archived in 『An Out-Of-The-Ordinary Challenge』 In 2022, two long-awaited books were released in Korea: one detailing the remarkable journey of how SpaceX transformed the aerospace industry and became the world’s leading private space company, and the other retelling the story of the Toss team, Korea’s first fintech unicorn company that is revolutionizing financial experiences for consumers. These books describe how both companies had to constantly prove themselves while enduring the many obstacles, failures, and struggles that came with taking the unknown road – the road that was deemed by everyone as impossible. 

Professor Sang Kyu Park | Owens Liberal Arts College, Korea Nazarene University Professor Park has a doctoral degree in public administration (major: organizational theory) from Chungnam National University. Since 2017, Professor Park has taught courses at Korea Nazarene University titled “Learning to Succeed through Failure,” and he also recently published a translated version of the book 「Learning from Entrepreneurial Failure」 (2021). He serves as a private committee member of the Ministry of the Interior and Safety’s Fail Expo and participates in projects that aim to shift the public perception of failure and create assets based on knowledge gained from failure. His main research interest in the field of failure studies involves the integration of active administration and failure learning theories. Professor Park is currently writing a book with the working title of ‘Failure Studies Research,’ which he hopes will encourage other universities to implement lectures on failure studies. 

Why is it so hard to learn from our failures? :  The necessary conditions to learn from failure according to motivation research Today’s society is well aware of the fact that there are ‘lessons to be learned from failure.’ We often see successful individuals emphasize the importance of learn- ing from one’s failures. For example, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates once said, “ it’s fine to celebrate success, but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.” But let us take the time to think about this statement: how much do we really learn from our failures?  The research paper featured in this report was published in 2019 by Professor Ayelet Fishbach from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Dr. Lauren Eskreis-Winkler, and it challenges our conventional wisdom of ‘learning from failure.’ Here, an experimental study was conducted to prove how the act of failure itself prevents an individual from focusing on the lessons that can be learned. This report will share and examine some of the key findings and implica- tions of the study.