Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed

Learning from mistakes

Matthew Syed is an award winning journalist (for The Times), speaker, author, table-tennis star and thought-leader, most renowned for the idea that developing a growth mindset, (essentially being prepared to learn from our mistakes), is scientifically proven to lead to greater performance.

This book expertly sets the stage for this message in the form of a very potent and heart-breaking story about a BA Pilot and his wife who died from from what should have been a minor, routine operation. Given his background as a pilot, he was not satisfied by the explanation given.

The field of aviation has become what it is today by creating an astonishingly good safety record, precisely because mistakes are learned from rather than concealed. The little black box (or should we say orange on-flight recorder) is critical to understanding the sequence of events leading to an accident and therefore to ensuring it does not happen again.

However, in this case, there was significant pressure to not own up to the human errors in the system as failure would bring personal blame, and potentially the end of a career. 

How does this relate to the Insight profession?

The reality is that human factors feature in any system or process and it is our capacity to observe and learn from them in a non-judgemental way that will lead to future improvement. 

Here we are talking about the success of a commercial organisation, and though we are not talking life and death scenarios, Insight teams are tasked with identifying value for the business. It is the core role of the team to search for the marginal gains that can increase market share - establishing what works and what doesn't. In essence, Insight teams play the role of the black box for their organisation - continuously recording key metrics and acting as the 'accident and investigation authority' where required, with a sole focus on identifying value - even if that is to minimise risk.

If you are seeking to switch your team's mindset from a fixed one to one of growth, this book is an inspirational must-read.

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