Everybody Fails But Not Everybody Learns: Why Is It So Hard to Learn from Failures?

By Kristina Dahlin and You-Ta Chuang

What do the US Marines, freight rail staff, computer programmers, Formula 1 drivers, and health care practitioners have in common? They all experience errors and failures at work and the same set of models can explain why and how they can improve failure reduction.

Failure learning has emerged as a vibrant interdisciplinary area of research. This book brings 14 scholars together in an edited volume containing failure studies and highlighting learning issues in settings such as freight rail, nurses hand washing routines, operating theatres, aviation, computer programming, Formula 1 racing, and the US Marines. In-depth analyses highlight what we know and offer deeper insights into the processes of (non)learning as well as learning. The book contains an overview of 13 commonly used models when studying error and failure learning; and interviews with a flight safety instructor, a surgeon and an international business executive put the models used by scholars to the test and offer insights on how to refine and extend the theories. Synthesizing across settings and theories, the book highlights overlooked aspects of failure learning and outlines new areas of study that can help us better understand how to improve failure reduction.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198888643
• ISBN13: 9780198888642
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.0"