Intelligent Failure

By Shlomo Maital

Amanda Anisimova

     Amanda Anisimova, a Russian-born American tennis player, lost the Wimbledon tennis final, 6-0, 6-0,  in under one hour, to #1 Iga Świątek.   It was a humiliating, decisive failure. 

    Writing in the New York Times, Rustin Dodd explained why Anisimova’s response was a “master class” in how to lose gracefully. Anisimova “graciously complimented her opponent, thanked the fans — and apologized, too — and then broke down as she praised her mother, who had nurtured and supported her after the sudden death of her father in 2019 and during an eight-month sabbatical from tennis that began in 2023.  “I know I didn’t have enough today, but I’m going to keep putting in the work,” Anisimova said, wiping tears from her cheek. “I always believe in myself so I hope to be back here again one day.” “

     Anisimova was a dark horse competitor whom nobody expected to make the final.  Swiatek dominated totally; with Anisimova losing without winning a single game, losing ALL her services, it should have been crushing and humiliating for Anisimova.  She has been through hardship, quit tennis for a while – and seems to have it all together now. 

         “I didn’t have enough today,”  she said.  But one day, she will.

         Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson[1] has written brilliantly on failure.  Businesses don’t fail enough, meaning, they don’t engage in “intelligent failure” – high risk innovations that also bring even higher possible returns if they work.  But failing often requires a learning strategy from failure – simply, to ask continually ‘why’,  and not ‘who’ – who is responsible leads to hiding error, a disaster.  ‘why’ leads to learning, repair, and progress.  This is the strategy used by leading militaries, in debriefing operations.  Why, not who…and what should be done as a result.

     Fail often. But only if you do so intelligently, by learning from each failure.  Edison’s thousand attempts to develop a filament for the light bulb are an example.  He said, later, each failure was a step toward ultimate success.

[1] A. Edmondson. “Strategies for Learning from Failure. Harvard Business Review April 2004