"The biggest job we have is to teach a newly hired employee how to fail intelligently. We have to train him to experiment over and over and to keep on trying and failing until he learns what will work"

Charles F. Kettering addresses a profound paradigm crucial to personal and organizational growth: the value of intelligent failure. Failure, rather than a negative outcome to be avoided, emerges as a fundamental aspect of learning and innovation. The central job of leaders and organizations is to cultivate an environment where new hires approach problems with the willingness, and the permission, to fail repeatedly, provided each failure becomes a learning opportunity.

By speaking of failing “intelligently,” Kettering isn’t advocating for reckless mistakes or careless repetition of errors. Instead, he emphasizes deliberate experimentation: trying new approaches, analyzing outcomes, and refining methods based on what is learned. The process echoes the scientific method, where every experiment, successful or not, yields knowledge that informs the next attempt. For newly hired employees, this approach fosters resilience, creativity, and adaptability. Rather than fearing mistakes, they learn to see failed attempts as stepping stones towards eventual success.

Kettering’s philosophy recognizes that innovation rarely springs from perfection on the first attempt. Many breakthroughs are built atop layers of failure, each revealing critical information about what does not work, and therefore illuminating the path to what does. When organizations invest in teaching new hires to experiment constantly and treat failures constructively, they build a workforce equipped to tackle complex, evolving challenges. Such employees are empowered to move beyond rote instruction to true problem-solving.

Building a culture where intelligent failure is accepted and encouraged requires trust and support from leadership. It challenges the traditional aversion to mistakes, replacing it with a focus on iterative improvement and curiosity. Training employees to engage in thoughtful experimentation not only helps them grow individually but also accelerates collective progress. Ultimately, Kettering’s insight underscores that sustainable success is rarely instant or linear; rather, it is a cumulative process shaped by persistent, reflective, and intelligent trial and error.