Originally found at Forbes, by Shellye Archambeau.

Fail forward fast.

Three words of management strategy you hear regularly in Silicon Valley and increasingly from would-be innovators in other industries, as well.

Although some would argue it is a worn-out cliché, this key component of lean startup strategy remains a widely endorsed piece of advice: Experiment and fail at the smaller initiatives as you continue to move forward, all the time learning how to achieve your larger macro goal.

There’s a problem, however: Minorities and women face a unique set of challenges – and rules, for that matter – that unfortunately prejudge performance and stereotype it back to their identity group.

Kristina B. Dahlin, You-Ta Chuang and Thomas J. Roulet, writing in the Academy of Management Annals, say it is essential to differentiate between “spurious failures” (bad results despite appropriate processes) and “spurious successes” (desired results but processes that didn’t work as envisioned) in order to learn the right lesson.

Continue reading the original article at Forbes.

Read the original research in Academy of Management Annals.

Learn more about the AOM Scholars and explore their work:

• Kristina B. Dahlin, University of Oxford
• You-Ta Chuang, York University
• Thomas J. Roulet, King’s College London