The Other "F" Word: How Smart Leaders, Teams, and Entrepreneurs Put Failure to Work

AppendixOur Classrooms: Putting Failure to Work in Creating Value

As you know, both of us teach several courses at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, while also anchoring various leadership education programs for U.S. and international executives. Berkeley-Haas has a significant but simple mission: developing leaders who redefine how we do business. Our campus cherishes its tradition of independent thinking, discovery, and dynamism on many levels, both in and out of the classroom and research labs. Against that background, Dean Rich Lyons has centered the school's approach around four defining principles:

1. Question the status quo: It doesn't get more Berkeley than that
2. Confidence without attitude: We want our students to be effective collaborators as well as leaders
3. Students always: Our invitation to continued curiosity and humility
4. Beyond yourself: We hope our graduates produce not just shareholder but societal value

Our classes deal with innovation, leadership, entre- and intrapreneurship, and strategy. But regardless of their focus, failure and fear of it play significant roles in all these arenas. We thought some of you might be interested in how we teach about that interplay. Here's a profile of two of our classes, our “Workshop for Startups” and our “Other F Word” course, which gave this book its title.

“Workshop for Startups”: Pressure-Testing New Venture Concepts

Before they open on Broadway, many shows do trial openings elsewhere. Not to pick on our friends at ...