I recently read about Wendy Joungs study around whether it is more effective to train people using examples where people succeeded or where they made errors. The results were surprising!

Joung and her colleagues found that firefighters who underwent the error-based training showed improved judgment and were able to think more adaptively than those who underwent the error-free training.“

Part of of the reason is it is easier to fight the inclination to make excuses about the errors if they were made by somebody else. The participants avoid the bruised ego so are more likely to learn from the experience.

So if you are thinking about designing training or mentoring someone it might be worthwhile having some examples of when things went wrong as well as the usual best practice examples.

Interested to hear your comments