Is it possible to fail in a praiseworthy way? We have all had failures in our lives, most of us more than once. In the approach of Ahmad Piraiee, director of Startup Grind in Warsaw, this is not necessarily a negative thing. Depending on the type of failure, we can learn and build from it. This was the topic of his workshop organized by the MCC's Centre for Next Technological Futures Workshop, where he talked about the concept of failure and the classification of its types.

Failure is defined as the state of not achieving a goal. There are reasons behind our failures, which can be easily classified using a scale developed by Ahmad Piraiee, with the blameworthy at one end and the praiseworthy at the other.  Our own failures should also be assessed in this way. The closer they are to the praiseworthy end of the scale, the more we can be proud of them and the more we can learn from them. However, the causes of failures on the other side of the scale are due to our own carelessness and laziness and should not be seen as exemplary.

The types of failure are: deviance, inattention, lack of ability, process inadequacy, process complexity, uncertainty, hypothesis testing, exploratory testing. They are ranked on a scale of causes to be blamed or praised as follows.

 

During the workshop, students evaluated and ranked their own failures on the scale, drawing valuable lessons. Which of your failures would you recall and where would you place it on Piraiee's scale?