How to FAIL the RIGHT way - Business English lesson on INTELLIGENT FAILURE

Today we're talking about how to fail at work the right way. We listen to some native and natural sounding words, vocabulary, and phrases to talk about failure, and the four elements that make a failure intelligent. So, if you speak English at work as a second language and you'd like to fail in a more intelligent way, then this episode is for you. 

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Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

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Today's examples:

- We really are at the bleeding edge of the industry here.

- These are novel ideas and we really are in uncharted territory.

- We’re breaking new ground with this work and there’s no blueprint for how to go about this.

- We’re definitely heading in the right direction but setbacks are to be expected.

- It’s important that we articulate a concrete goal for the project before we start allocating resources.

- I think we all have a vested interest in figuring this out.

Transcript

Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast, where I help you to communicate better at work in English. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I am a Business English Coach. I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them to improve their English and communication skills. Thank you so much for listening today and for your time, and today's topic? Is how to fail. Intelligently. How to fail intelligently. In last week's podcast, we talked about dealing with failure. How to take responsibility when things go wrong, and how to talk about the possibility of failure. This week. We're going to continue with the theme of failure, but we're going to approach it from a different angle. And look at it in a more positive way. Amy Edmondson is currently a Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. In 2023, she published a book entitled The Right Kind of Wrong. In it, she details how we should aim to embrace failure and fail more often at work. However, The specific type of failure that we should aim for is what she calls intelligent failure. Intelligent failure has four parts to it. First, it should explore new territory. And new ideas. The second point is that it should be in pursuit of a goal. Thirdly, It should be based on a hypothesis, an idea that you have. It should test this theory. And finally, the failure should be kept as small as possible. If you can check all four of these boxes and satisfy all of these requirements, then you've got yourself an intelligent failure. We're going to break this down into two episodes starting this week, exploring those first two ideas today and the second two next week. With that said... Let's listen now to some examples of professionals talking about our first point and that is exploring new territory. We really are at the bleeding edge of the industry here. We really are at the bleeding edge of the industry here. These are novel ideas and we really are in uncharted territory. These are novel ideas and we really are in uncharted territory. We're breaking new ground with this work, and there's no blueprint for how to go about this. We're breaking new ground with this work. And there's no blueprint for how to go about this. Let's start today with a phrase from that first example: And that is Bleeding Edge. As in the bleeding edge of the industry. The bleeding edge of the industry. For this explanation, I want you to think of a knife. Now, a knife might be a big piece of metal, however the part that actually does the cutting is quite small. The part of the knife that actually makes progress and leads the rest of the tool forwards is the thinnest part of the blade. We can think of an industry or field in the same way. The people or research studies who actually lead the overall field forwards. Are very few usually. From this, we get a common phrase to describe advanced technology or advanced ideas, and that is Coaching. Edge. We've been using the phrase cutting edge, to describe technology since the 1960s. However, In the 1980s, some people decided that this wasn't enough to describe their work. They were doing work that was even more advanced than the cutting edge. We can therefore use the very visual term, the bleeding edge, to describe things which are so new and experimental that they are, Haps. Unstable? Or unreliable. Or not yet completely thought out or figured out. Bully bleeding edge technology is the most advanced that you will find in really any industry or field. In the second example, we heard the word 'novel'. As in... These are... Novel. Ideas. These are novel ideas. Novel is a word that you have perhaps heard already. Maybe whilst walking around a bookstore. There are, broadly speaking, Two types of books. These are fiction and non-fiction. Non-fiction books. Contain facts. These are biographies of people and explanations of how to do things or solve problems. Maybe they are history books or guidebooks telling you about a place. They are focused on giving you real information. We could actually put maybe self-development or professional development books in there. The book we're talking about today, The Right Kind of Wrong by Amy Edmondson, would absolutely be a non-fiction book. But the other type of book is fiction. These are... Stories. Everything from romance to horror. Another word for a book of this type, a book of fiction, a book of stories, is a novel. Now. Although we generally use the word novel to describe any type of storybook, The original meaning is more specific. "novel" should really be used to describe a completely new and original story. This is because it comes from the original ancient Latin word meaning "sacred". New we can take this word and apply it to lots of professional situations that we find at work. If you are faced with a novel problem, then it's likely that no one has ever had to deal with this problem before. Or maybe a customer. Could tell you that they've got a novel question for you if they don't think you've been asked this one in the past. Okay, if I tell you that I'm going to be attending a groundbreaking ceremony, then what kind of event am I going to? What kind of thing will I be watching? In the third example, we heard we're breaking new ground. We're breaking new ground.Well, a groundbreaking ceremony. Is usually held on the day that construction begins on a new building. Usually investors and architects and other important people relative to the project will come to the construction site with shovels. And push them into the ground, moving the first dirt and digging the first ceremonial holes to get the project started. This likely doesn't happen when we're, I don't know, building a house or something like that. But any big building, then you probably have a ceremony like this. Now that we know what a groundbreaking ceremony is, then what do I mean if I describe my work as ground-breaking? Just like the phrase bleeding edge that we discussed earlier, we mean that we're doing something new.Something that no one has ever done before. We most often use this to describe research and science. But we can absolutely use it to describe ideas and solutions for problems that you might have at work too. And with regards to grammar, groundbreaking is usually used as an adjective. This is a groundbreaking idea. Or maybe we're not really doing anything groundbreaking here, but it is interesting. And if you want to use it as a verb, well, in the example we heard, we're breaking new ground with this work.So we're breaking new ground to be breaking new ground or to break new ground is how you would use it as a verb. And if you want to learn some novel vocabulary to help you to communicate better at work, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. If you need English to do your job. But you don't speak it natively, then I would love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com, and find out more. Starting on our very first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills and the mistakes that you make most often. Or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now, you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45 or 60 minutes.Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy. So if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, then you can always message me through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their communication goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Our second idea. Is that intelligent failure should be in pursuit of a goal. We should know where we are going. And what we want to achieve. And our failures should be experienced en route to that destination. Let's take a listen to some natural and native sounding ways that we might discuss this idea. We're definitely heading in the right direction, but setbacks are to be expected. We're definitely heading in the right direction, but setbacks are to be expected. It's important that we articulate a concrete goal for the project before we start allocating resources. It's important that we articulate a concrete goal for the project before we start allocating resources. I think we all have a vested interest in figuring this out. I think we all have a vested interest in figuring this out. Now, when I say the word Concrete. What do you think of? I'm guessing that you've got an image of the building material in your head right now. Am I right? The stuff that we pour as a liquid and then becomes strong enough to construct buildings. We can take this same idea and use it as an adjective. As in our example. It's important that we articulate a concrete goal. A concrete goal. When we describe something as concrete, We mean that it is certain. Definite.Solid and 100%, it's not likely to change. If I give you a concrete date for our next meeting, for instance, then you can be confident that it's going to happen. And make plans based on that information. Vested interest is a phrase that might be new to you, but... If we take a look at that first word, vested, And. Add the prefix I am. N. In Then we get... Invested. And I'm guessing that this is a word that you've seen before. If you invest in something, then you put money into it. Usually hoping that it will give you back more than you started with. It's an investment. We don't only invest money, though. We can talk about investing our time into things. It's not uncommon. To hear people talk about investing a lot of time and effort into their hobbies and passions.So if you have a vested interest in something, This means that you have very strong reasons for wanting something to happen. This is often because you've put a lot of time, effort or money into it. You've contributed to it. I've worked with a lot of people at startups who feel like they have a vested interest in the success of the company as a whole. One of the key ideas that Amy Edmondson talks about with regard to intelligent failure is that you should aim to fail in medium to low stakes situations. Medium to low, Stakes. Situations. No one wants to be testing new ideas for parachute designs while jumping out of an airplane, for instance. This would generally be unadvisable and a bad time to be thinking about new designs. If your job is always high stakes, then the question becomes, how can you engineer and create low stakes situations where you can test new ideas and indeed fail intelligently? Best though. What do we mean by St- date. Thanks. That's S-T-L-E-R. A. K. E. S. The stakes of a situation. Refer to how much you have to lose, how much you could potentially lose, and sometimes how much you could possibly lose. Gain. It's... Another word for Risk. This is a term that we most commonly see in gambling. High-stakes poker is usually played by people with a lot of money, for instance, whereas low-stakes poker is what I spent far too many nights playing while I was at university. You may have heard people in movies saying things like, I'd stake my life on it. I'd stake my life on it. When being asked how sure they are of a situation or outcome. That would be another way to say, I'd bet my life on it.So I'd stake my life on it. I would bet my life on it being really the same sentence there. In this case, they're saying that they would be willing to risk or bet their life on an outcome. Often people say I'd bet my house on it, or I'd stake my house on it. Meaning that if they failed to predict the situation correctly, then they would lose their house. One last way to say this, with a great idiom, is that there's less on the line. If something is on the line, then it's at risk. You might try to impress your boss if you know that there's a promotion 'on the line' for instance. This is another phrase that likely comes from gambling. Or the little bit of research that I've done suggests that it might come from the world of insurance, but I think that's slightly less interesting, even if it is true. Either way, if something is on the line, then there's a chance that you could lose it or lose. Just fail to get it, fail to acquire it. Amy Edmondson's book on this topic is called The Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well. And... If you want to discuss. These ideas with me Personally, then don't forget. That you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills, by going to www. Break out. Business English. . . That's the title of the podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com. Or, of course, you can click the link down in the show notes. And don't forget to use the code PODCAST30. That's PODCAST30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with far too many non-native English speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and even a couple of government leaders to help them achieve their goals. And I look forward to meeting you. And if you want to see exactly what I do in my coaching sessions, then feel free to go to the Breakout Business English YouTube channel and take a look at that. Again, you can search Breakout Business English on YouTube or click the link down in the show notes. I'm looking for podcast listeners who want to get involved.So. If you are interested in letting me. Analyze your English in a YouTube video then you can go to breakout.com. Businessenglish.com. Forward Slack go. Contact That's it. Breakoutbusinessenglish.com/contact and let me know that you're interested. I've already analyzed the English of people like the Italian leader, Giorgia Maloney, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and actor Bruce Lee over on the YouTube channel.So feel free to contact me and we can add your name to that list. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. If you found this podcast useful and you think that there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words or just leave a review with the amount of stars that you think this podcast is worth there. And I thank you in advance. A review is a great place to request a topic for a future podcast. Maybe that's a book you want me to talk about or just a communication book. Topic. That's it for today. Thank you so much for listening and for your time as always. And I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English Podcast.