Ashley Good from Toronto, Canada is recognized as no less than "a world expert on failure". Working on several development projects around the world she was faced with the need to address the inefficiencies, and sometimes ineffectiveness of development work. Based on her experience she created AdmittingFailure.com and FailForward.org in 2010 to spark a shift in how civil society perceives and talks about failure. In her opening keynote titled "What's So Great About Failure?" at FailCon Oslo June 6, 2013 she shares her story and some ideas for the audience to apply the Fail Forward approach to their contexts.

1. Ashley Good | 06 June 2013
www.failforward.org
@admitfailure
What’s So Great
About Failure?

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Choose the Challenge

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I do acknowledge my
failures. But no one
else does.
I want to but I fear I
will be judged and
punished.
Need a new norm of talking about
success and failures all the time

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Confirmation Bias
Empathetic, blameless dialogue to
break down defensiveness and fear

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11. I REALIZED
• Our perception of failure was
flawed
• It is a choice to accept failures,
not ignore deny blame
• We can reframe failures as
learning and practice
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Theory
GapGap
Action

14. Theory to Practice
Four ways to bridge that gap at
your organization:
1. Find and share stories of role
models
2. Build your capacity to share failures
well
3. Share the idea
4. Formalize the failure process

15. Find Role Models

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Build Capacity

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Share the Idea

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Formalize the Process

19. Eddie Obeng
Author of World After Midnight
Ability to Learn
PAST NOW~15 YEARS AGO

20. Innovation is Proportional to
Risk of Failure
Risk
i.e. Likelihood of Failure
Low
Low
High
High

21. Challenge our instinctive
reactions and choose to
accept failure

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Reframe our
failures as practice
and learning

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Theory
Action
GapGap
Commit to turning
theory into action

24. “Pursue something so
important that even if you
fail, the world is better off
with you having tried.”
- Tim O'Reilly
Founder of O'Reilly Media