Renegade Marketers Unite

511: Failing Well Beats Playing It Safe

March 27, 2026·51 min
Episode Description from the Publisher

Too many companies treat every failure the same. That makes people more cautious, more guarded, and less willing to take the smart risks innovation requires.   Amy Edmondson argues that not all failures deserve the same label. Some are preventable. Some come with complexity. Then there is intelligent failure, the kind that comes with thoughtful experimentation in new territory and produces the learning that moves innovation forward.  In this episode, Drew Neisser brings in Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, author of Right Kind of Wrong, to look at what leaders need to do if they want teams experimenting and learning in unfamiliar territory. For Amy, that starts with a clear goal, a bet no bigger than necessary, and the kind of questions that create enough psychological safety for people to share what they're seeing early. So even when the result falls short, the learning is still useful.  What You'll Take Away:  The difference between preventable, complex, and intelligent failure  <ul class="BulletListStyle1 SCXW21

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