Free To Grow

In my post Free To Fail my point is we learn and become stronger by the experiences we have. What we learn helps us better understand how to deal with new situations we are confronted with. When someone shields us from those experiences they do a disservice. When we are shielded from important experiences over a very long period of time the results can be disastrous.

Clayton Christensen in his book Seeing What's Next: Using the Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change, in referring to the process of hiring people, articulates it this way:

Most of what managers have learned results from wrestling with problems. Overcoming these challenges or problems leads to the development of competencies that people can use in similar situations in the future. While the right-stuff thinking castigates failure, failing can actually be beneficial as long as one can learn to identify the root cause of the failure so as to prevent it in the future.

How people, managers, have overcome difficulties is often as important or more important than the management skills they have learned.