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Black Box Thinking

The Surprising Truth About Success

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Black Box Thinking

By: Matthew Syed
Narrated by: Simon Slater
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About this listen

When was the last time you experienced a sense of failure? Did you brush it off, or allow it to knock you down? Or did you use it as an opportunity to learn and grow?

Columnist for The Times and best-selling author of Bounce: The myth of talent and the power of practice Matthew Syed argues that the key to success is a positive attitude to failure.

What links the Mercedes Formula One team with Google? What links Dave Braisford's Team Sky and the aviation industry? What is the connection between the inventor James Dyson and the footballer David Beckham? They are all Black Box Thinkers.

Whether developing a new product, honing a core skill or just trying to get a critical decision right, Black Box Thinkers aren't afraid to face up to mistakes. In fact they see failure as the very best way to learn. Rather than denying their mistakes, blaming others or attempting to spin their way out of trouble, these institutions and individuals interrogate errors as part of their future strategy for success.

How many of us, hand on heart, can say that we have such a healthy relationship with failure? Learning from failure has the status of a cliché, but this book reveals the astonishing story behind the most powerful method of learning known to mankind and reveals the arsenal of techniques wielded by some of the world's most innovative organizations.

Their lessons can be applied across every field - from sport to education, from business to health. Using gripping case studies, exclusive interviews and really practical takeaways, Matthew Syed - the award-winning journalist and best-selling author of Bounce - explains how to turn failure into success and shows us how we can all become better Black Box Thinkers.

©2015 Matthew Syed (P)2015 Hodder & Stoughton
Leadership Personal Success Inspiring Business Thought-Provoking Aviation
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What listeners say about Black Box Thinking

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent insight

This audio book is relevant for all educators! Excellent collection of sources, written in a stylish way. It's a must read!

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    5 out of 5 stars

This should be part of school curriculum in every country, and for every company manager.

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Brilliant

This is possibly the most enjoyable book I’ve ever listened to in the many years I’ve been with Audible. Brilliant narration by Simon Slater as usual. If you’re limited by time and expense and can’t decide which book to listen to this is defiantly the one to go for!

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  • Overall
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Very detailed look at the success of failure.

The book really opened my eyes to how to turn failures into successes by changing your mindset about them.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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makes you think differently

I would recommend reading this book. it makes you think differently about how failure can help everyone improve, in all aspects of life

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Excellent!

An informative, well constructed and well articulated book that addresses the key and sometimes awkward topics head on. Very enjoyable.

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Must listen

This is an absolutely incredible book that should be a must read/listen for anyone in a profession, business, well... fulfilling life. It’s beyond excellent.

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    4 out of 5 stars

Motivational subject and fascinating examples

Great book, with perfectly chosen examples. At times I felt there was one too many examples for the same argument, which made the plot a bit tedious to follow. Otherwise, very insightful, as well as very well narrated. Highly useful both in personal and professional life.

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A must read

Ultimately, it's a book that talks about improving performance. While it has the theme of nurturing failure as a core to the story, the book touches upon many different and useful concepts and ideas.

The book is well written, using interesting examples to explain the ideas, but it does not rely solely on such anecdotes.

Having done an MBA, I can say that this book covers many of the most interesting aspects of the MBA course, in a condensed version.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Black Box Thinking

This book is a "must read", a manifesto for changing our mind set, challenging well establish patterns that preventig us to learn from mistake and encouraging on using failure as an oportunity to improve. The narrative is so good that you look eager for any opportunity to continue listening the book.

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