Little is said about how post-failure learning occurs, how it is shared and how it becomes positive.
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When you think of Slack, video games don't usually come to mind... at all. But the truth is, before tormenting millions of workers worldwide, the founders of Slack wanted to develop a video game called Glitch.
As you can guess, their first project failed. But in the process, the developers realized how difficult it was to communicate with colleagues. So, they developed an internal messaging tool, and the rest is history.
This is a great example of how often failed projects hide big opportunities and lessons.
We often hear that we can learn a lot from failure, but little is said about how that learning happens, how it's shared, and how it's turned into something good.
In this article, we're going to share a process and some best practices that we use when bringing Fuckup Nights to companies around the world.
When we talk about "lessons learned" we refer to the knowledge gained from past challenges and failures.
It's no secret that documenting and sharing these lessons helps teams to avoid repeating mistakes, optimize processes, and improve decision-making. It also fosters continuous improvement and long-term innovation through efficient knowledge transfer between employees.
However, when moving from theory to practice we often see a lack of processes for documenting these learnings despite the evident benefits.
According to data from our Failure Survey (2023), only 35.5% of employees typically communicate and report lessons learned from failure.
Why is that?
When it comes to sharing and socializing lessons learned, there are two complementary must haves:
Culture: There has to be a core belief of winning collectively. Even with the best resources for training and documentation, sharing won't occur without creating spaces that foster psychological safety and a mindset focused on continuous learning.
This creates a trustworthy and transparent work environment that encourages openness, allowing team members to discuss their mistakes without fear of retaliation. In this culture, failure is perceived as an opportunity for learning rather than a reason for shame.
Workplaces must address mistakes with a sense of responsibility and commitment, focusing on solutions rather than imposing fear through sanctions.
Infrastructure: A culture geared toward sharing lessons learned won't be efficient without the right tools, channels, or processes to support it.
Frequently, these learnings involve a vast amount of information, perspectives, and causes, making it overwhelming to synthesize them into something concrete and helpful.
It becomes essential to have easy to use processes for documenting and sharing lessons. Effective mechanisms are simple, friendly, and quick to use. Remember, we want them to share failures and challenges. We need to make it as easy and enjoyable as possible.
A great tool for evaluating a team's or project's performance after completion is the AAR process, which stands for After Action Review.
It's a structured way to reflect on what happened during the execution of a task or project—what went well, what didn't, and how future outcomes can be improved. It consists of four stages:
The value of the AAR lies in its ability to identify lessons learned immediately, promote a culture of transparency and accountability, and improve team performance moving forward.
Finally, we'd like to share some tips we've learned from bringing the Fuckup Nights philosophy to hundreds of companies:
Success doesn’t offer many big levers for improvement. On the other hand, failures are hiding the information that will lead to your company’s growth. This is your gold mine.
Why not start acting on failure more effectively?
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Let's transform our perception of failure and use it as a catalyst for growth.
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