We learn from our mistakes. Ideally, we also would learn from others’ mistakes so we don’t repeat them. That’s difficult when no one talks about them.

At a recent meeting of high-level global health stakeholders, I heard several attendees call for a safe space to share failures. And earlier this month, Dr. Rajiv Shah committed his agency, USAID, to creating “an environment safe to report on things that don’t work.”

How does one go about creating such a environment? Who starts? What is the best way to document and share these failures? A failure blog, detailed case studies, conference sessions or all of the above? Whether this safe environment for failure materializes or fizzles rests on strong, visionary leadership.

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Learning from Failure
Graphic from Wired Magazine

Edith Wilson raised the issue of talking about failure back in May on the World Bank’s Development Marketplace blog. She wrote: “We don’t even track failures for the most part, only successes and results.

Perhaps we need to change that mentality, though, if we want to get better at innovation for development. Perhaps Development Marketplace should have been tracking and analyzing not just the projects that took off and grew, but why some of our winning projects didn’t take off or reach their goals.”

In the comments sections, readers pointed Wilson to Failcamp in Birmingham, England. I checked out the Website and it seems to be an informal gathering of people interested in social media with the explicit charge “to share stories about failing spectacularly.”

That’s a pretty cool idea.

Another commenter linked to a Wired story that explores the neuroscience behind human failure. Apparently, our neurons enable us to disbelieve our failures. The best part of the article, however, was the above graphic inspired by Kevin Dunbar‘s research on how scientists deal with failure.

I particularly like the notion of seeking out the uninformed to explain our ideas. This forces us to defend them in a common language, thus subjecting them to a plurality of potential criticism and not just from those who are brainwashed already by our jargon.

Embracing a diversity of minds and disciplines similarly allows us to approach problems and solutions more creatively. You don’t have to be in the global health or development fields very long to see the follies that emerge from failing on these counts.

Some doctors in the United States want more research money to look for failures. Not all medical interventions have lasting beneficial effects, and patients may be subjecting themselves to a risk that has no potential benefits. Patients will benefit from studies that tell doctors what isn’t working, but unsurprisingly this call to action meets a lot of reluctance.

There is agreement that global and U.S. health care can improve through more discussion about failures. What’s the next step? Maybe, I’ll start a “failure of the month” blog. Would anyone volunteer their stories?

UPDATE: I just learned about FailFaire organized by MobileActive.org in the U.S. The World Bank co-hosted a FailFaire session in D.C. this week. Here, here and here are some descriptions of the FAILFaire, which seems to have been an overwhelming success. Maybe I’ll spearhead organizing one in Boston. Anyone interested?

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