Rethinking Failure and Employee Value: Insights from Jason Averbook’s LinkedIn Post

In a recent LinkedIn post, Jason Averbook discusses key takeaways from Amy Edmondson’s presentation at UNLEASH 2026, focusing on how organizations can foster innovation and high performance by moving beyond traditional industrial-era playbooks. Averbook highlights a critical disconnect between the stated desire for innovation and the practical reality of organizational structures that often stifle it.

Averbook relays Edmondson’s core argument that many companies inadvertently punish intelligent failure, which is essential for genuine progress. He notes the common organizational tendency to treat failure as a defect rather than a source of learning.

“We keep saying we want ‘innovation’ and ‘high performance’ but most organizations are still running an industrial-era playbook: 1) Failure is treated as a defect to eliminate, not data to learn from 2) People are rewarded for looking right, not for surfacing what’s wrong 3) We obsess over perks and policies, but underinvest in purpose, growth and community.”

The insights shared by Averbook, drawing from Edmondson, break down failures into distinct categories: basic, complex, and intelligent. As Averbook explains, it is only intelligent failures—those stemming from thoughtful bets in new territory—that truly drive an organization forward. However, he points out that these are often the very failures that organizational cultures implicitly penalize.

Fostering Excellence Through Intelligent Failure

Averbook emphasizes Edmondson’s proposed recipe for achieving excellence in uncertain environments. This involves setting ambitious goals, fostering cross-disciplinary collaboration, and embracing a culture of experimentation. According to Averbook, the ability to learn quickly from these experiments and share those lessons is paramount.

“Amy broke it down: Not all failures are equal: 1) Basic failures: preventable mistakes in well-known work 2) Complex failures: many small factors colliding into disaster 3) Intelligent failures: thoughtful bets in genuinely new territory. Only the last kind moves us forward. Yet it’s the one most cultures quietly punish.”

Averbook underscores that the foundation for such a culture is psychological safety. He quotes Edmondson’s assertion that without an environment where individuals feel safe to admit uncertainty or potential failure, an organization cultivates compliance rather than a true performance culture.

Redefining the Employee Value Proposition

Beyond failure, Averbook addresses the critical need to rethink the employee value proposition (EVP). He argues that organizations often err by focusing too heavily on perks and policies, neglecting more fundamental elements. As Averbook relays from Edmondson’s perspective, a robust EVP should be viewed as an integrated system rather than a mere list.

• Material rewards (pay, flexibility)
• Growth and development
• Connection and community
• Meaning and purpose

Averbook highlights that when these four components are thoughtfully integrated, the result is a significant uplift in performance, engagement, and psychological safety, while simultaneously reducing burnout and turnover. He quotes Edmondson’s view on the necessity of this integrated approach:

“The other big unlock: rethink the employee value proposition as a system, not a list of perks… When those four are integrated, you see higher performance, engagement, psychological safety and lower burnout and turnover.”

Leadership’s Role in Designing for Success

Concluding his post, Averbook reflects on the direct implications for leaders. He posits that failing to actively design for intelligent failure and an integrated employee value proposition is, by default, designing for mediocrity. As Averbook states:

“My takeaway for leaders (including myself): If we’re not actively designing for intelligent failure and integrated employee value, we’re designing for mediocrity by default.”

The insights shared by Averbook, originally presented by Amy Edmondson, offer a compelling framework for leaders seeking to build more innovative, high-performing, and resilient organizations in today’s complex business landscape.