Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth About Success

Description

What links the Mercedes Formula One team with Google?

What is the connection between Dave Brailsford’s Team Sky and the aviation industry?

What links the inventor James Dyson and the basketball player Michael Jordan?

They are all Black Box Thinkers.

Whether developing a new product, honing a core skill or just trying to get a critical decision right, Black Box Thinkers aren’t afraid to face up to mistakes. In fact, Black Box Thinkers see failure as the very best way to learn. Rather than denying their mistakes, blaming others, or attempting to spin their way out of trouble, these institutions and individuals interrogate errors as part of their future strategy for success.

How many of us can say that we have such a healthy relationship with failure?

Learning from failure has the status of a cliché, but this book reveals the astonishing story behind the most powerful method of learning known to mankind, and reveals the arsenal of techniques wielded by some of the world’s most innovative organizations. It also reveals the dangers of failing to learn from mistakes. In healthcare, hundreds of thousands of patients die from preventable medical errors every year due to a chronic lack of Black Box Thinking

Using gripping case studies, exclusive interviews and really practical takeaways, Matthew Syed – the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Bounce – explains how to turn failure into success, and shows us how we can all become better Black Box Thinkers.

Reviews

“Mathew Syed has issued a stirring call to redefine failure. Failure shouldn’t be shameful and stigmatizing, he explains. Instead, he shows that failure can be exciting and enlightening — an essential ingredient in any recipe for success. Full of well-crafted stories and keenly deployed scientific insights, Black Box Thinking will forever change the way you think about screwing up.”—DANIEL PINK, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human

“Insightful and entertaining”—DAN ARIELY, author of Predictably Irrational

“The most important book I’ve read over the past six months.”—PETER ORSZAG, economist, in The New York Times

“A fascinating subject and Syed is a dazzling writer.”—OWEN SLOT, The Times London

“Everything Mathew Syed Writes is worth reading.”—LYNN TRUSS, bestselling author of Eat, Shoots & Leaves

Author Biography

Matthew Syed is a columnist and feature writer for The Times of London and frequently contributes to the BBC as a radio and television commentator. His previous book, Bounce, was an international bestseller. He has won numerous awards for his journalism and is an in-demand public speaker for organizations such as Goldman Sachs, BP, Rolls-Royce, and Oxford University. He lives in London.