You’re struggling to learn from failure in your R&D career. What’s the first step to turning things around?

1 Adopt a growth mindset

A growth mindset is the belief that your abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort, feedback, and learning. It’s the opposite of a fixed mindset, which assumes that your talents are innate and fixed, and that failure means you’re not good enough. With a growth mindset, you see failure as a challenge, not a threat, and as a chance to learn, not a reason to give up. You embrace feedback, seek new experiences, and persist in the face of obstacles. A growth mindset can help you overcome the fear of failure and boost your confidence, motivation, and performance in R&D.

2 Cultivate curiosity

Curiosity is the desire to explore, discover, and understand new things. It’s a key driver of innovation and learning in R&D, as it helps you generate novel ideas, test hypotheses, and find solutions. Curiosity also helps you cope with failure, as it makes you more open-minded, flexible, and resilient. Instead of dwelling on what went wrong, you ask yourself what you can learn from it, what you can do differently, and what you can try next. You also seek feedback from others, as you value their perspectives and insights. To cultivate curiosity, you need to challenge yourself, ask questions, and seek variety.

3 Practice reflection

Reflection is the process of thinking critically about your actions, experiences, and outcomes, and drawing conclusions that can guide your future decisions and actions. It’s an essential skill for learning from failure in R&D, as it helps you identify what worked and what didn’t, why and how things happened, and what you can improve or change. Reflection also helps you recognize your strengths and weaknesses, acknowledge your emotions, and appreciate your achievements. To practice reflection, you need to set aside time, write down your thoughts, and use frameworks or tools to structure your analysis.

4 Experiment with new approaches

Experimentation is the act of trying out new or different methods, techniques, or strategies to achieve a goal or solve a problem. It’s a core activity in R&D, as it helps you test your assumptions, validate your ideas, and optimize your results. Experimentation also helps you learn from failure, as it encourages you to explore various options, measure your progress, and iterate based on feedback. Instead of sticking to what you know or what you think works, you experiment with new approaches that can challenge your thinking, spark your creativity, and improve your outcomes.

5 Share your learnings

Sharing your learnings is the act of communicating what you have learned from your failures, successes, and feedback to others who can benefit from it. It’s a valuable practice in R&D, as it helps you spread knowledge, foster collaboration, and inspire innovation. Sharing your learnings also helps you learn from failure, as it makes you more accountable, transparent, and humble. Instead of hiding or rationalizing your mistakes, you share them openly and honestly, and seek input and support from others. You also celebrate and acknowledge your achievements, and recognize and appreciate the contributions of others.