Rethinking Failure in Social Impact

Failure isn’t just a possibility in social impact work — it’s inevitable. But are we failing constructively? In this episode, Eric and Jonathan break down the difference between constructive failure and harmful failure, and why embracing the right kind of failure is essential for innovation, leadership, and long-term impact.

From team dynamics and funding challenges to moonshot thinking and psychological safety, this conversation will shift your perspective on what it truly means to fail — and how to fail forward without losing trust, credibility, or momentum for your organization.

Episode Highlights:

• [00:00] Introduction – Why failure is a complex, layered topic in social impact.
• [02:20] Why Failure Is Good (But Hard to Embrace) – The role of failure in learning, growth, and innovation—and why so many organizations resist it.
• [07:39] When Failure Has Real Consequences – Understanding the stakes of failure in the nonprofit sector and why some organizations can’t afford to take big risks.
• [12:59] Good vs. Bad Failure – Breaking down the difference between constructive failure that drives progress and failure that erodes trust and credibility.
• [16:08] Learning from Failure: The 4-Day Workweek Experiment – How Cosmic tested, failed, and adapted their approach to a 4-day workweek—without backtracking on their vision.
• [23:40] How Leaders Can Create a Culture That Supports Failure – Practical steps for building psychological safety and making failure a tool for growth instead of a risk to avoid.
• [29:34] Why Failure Should Be an Experiment, Not a Guess – Taking a scientific approach to failure, how funders can support responsible risk-taking, and why experimentation leads to real innovation.

Quotes:

• "Failure is really just built into evolution, our humanity, the way physics and the world and science work at large. To not embrace it constructively, I think is just a big mistake." – Eric [02:20]
• "Being able, more importantly, to look failure in the eye—not just acknowledge it and move past it, but stand in the mirror and look at this failure and really let it sink in." – Jonathan [04:10]
• "It's really easy to talk about failure when you're not the one who's failing." – Eric [07:39]
• "Failure isn’t good carte blanche. We’re not out here preaching ‘go fail at everything.’ There are versions of failure that I don’t accept." – Jonathan [20:09]
• "If you never fail, you're not reaching far enough." – Eric [14:06]

Resources:

• Article - The Benefits of a 4 Day Work Week For Social Impact Organizations
• Article - In Defense of Moonshots: True Social Innovation Requires Taking Risks

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