Originally found at Lab Manager, by Rachel Muenz.

Managers often focus on lessons learned from failures and near-misses in their organizations, to avoid repeating the same mistakes in the future. However, recent research published in the journal Academy of Management Discoveries shows that examples of employees’ “exceptional” successes also motivate their peers to learn and succeed.

The researchers defined exceptional successes as positive outcomes that went above and beyond the intended result. In two studies, they found that while stories of “normal” successes did not motivate participants to learn, both stories of failure and exceptional success drove the participants to want to enhance their skills.

Continue reading the original article at Lab Manager.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Discoveries.

Also read this AOM Insights summary citing this research.

Learn more about the AOM Scholars and explore their work:

• Ryan W. Quinn, University of Louisville College of Business
• Christopher G. Myers, Johns Hopkins University
• Shirli Kopelman, University of Michigan
• Stefanie Simmons, Envision Physician Services