Failure is often seen as something to avoid, but Dan Ward sees it as a gateway to innovation. Dan is a military technologist, author, USAF veteran, and innovation catalyst at MITRE Corporation, and he and Lou talk about the profound lessons failure can teach. Drawing from his book LIFT: Innovation Lessons From Flying Machines That ALMOST Worked and The People Who NEARLY Flew Them, Ward shares stories of pre-Wright brothers (more accurately pre-Wright siblings) aviation experiments that, despite ending in failure, laid the groundwork for modern flight. He explains how studying and learning from setbacks can drive innovation and problem-solving in any field.
Dan shares his innovation team's unique approach to failure: celebrating it with “failure cake.” This ritual helps his team process setbacks, learn from them, and destigmatize failure in a supportive environment. He also emphasizes the importance of storytelling, arguing that even the best ideas are meaningless if they can’t be communicated clearly. The conversation highlights how embracing failure and sharing its lessons are essential for growth, whether in aviation, design, or technology.
Mark your calendars! Lou announces that Dan will headline Rosenfeld Media’s first Failure Friday on February 7, 2025, where he’ll further discuss the failure cake practice.
0:00 - Meet Dan Ward, an author and military technologist
3:19 - The stories of failed flights pre-Wright Siblings
8:56 - The scientific method vs alternative methods
12:36 - Failure stories make for good reading
16:04 - 5 reasons to use the Rosenverse
18:27 - The psychology behind speaking about failure
22:03 - Characteristics of a good failure story; and Failure Friday in the Rosenverse
24:13 - Failure cake
25:28 - Dan’s gift for the audience
Resources and Links from Today's Episode:
Fading the Spectrum https://www.instagram.com/fadingthespectrum/
LIFT: Innovation Lessons From Flying Machines That ALMOST Worked And The People Who NEARLY Flew Them by Dan Ward http://www.thedanward.com/lift/
TheDanWard.com https://www.thedanward.com/
“ The sooner you can face it, study it, name it, learn from it, the better off you'll be.”
“ If we're denying and ignoring our failures, guess what happens. We repeat them.”
“Studying failure is a great practice in any domain.”
“The best ideas in the world are worthless if you can’t express them clearly.”
“ It can be challenging to admit ignorance. It can be challenging to admit failure because that seems to undermine my credibility and my value as a professional in this field. But the good news is we do have an opportunity to flip that on its head without completely rewriting expert culture or getting rid of expert culture entirely.”
“A sign of a world-class professional is they admit when they are wrong.”
“Failure is when effort does not produce the desired result.”
