This is Lesson 6 in the boot camp How to be digital in the Canadian public service .

REQUIRED

6-MINUTE READ

1. Read how one city turned a “catastrophic failure” into an innovative success

Apolitical: Why public servants must learn to fail – and 3 tips for how to do it, by Brian Elms, Innovation Practice Lead at the Change and Innovation Agency in Denver, USA

10-MINUTE READS

2. Keep reading

Continue to learn about others’ lessons from failure:

Medium: Learning from failure at the Ontario Digital Service Lab

Apolitical: What failure has taught me

15-MINUTE REFLECTION

3. Reflect on what you’ve learned

Using these discussion questions, reflect on how to learn from failure in a risk-averse environment.

  • What are some of the risks of embracing failure as a learning opportunity, and what are some of the risks of not doing so?
  • How might we help public servants embrace failure and use the failures as learning opportunities?

45-MINUTE ACTIVITY

4. Play the paper plane game

In teams, see how quickly – and why – you can improve the quality of your paper planes over just three iterations.

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