It's time to talk about failure again! In this episode, Taryn Bell chats with Ireen Litvak-Zur, Senior Consultant at Advance HE. Ireen discusses her experiences of failure both in and out of academia, and shares her thoughts on how to fail well.

Key takeaways:

• "Failure now is a step in a process, rather than an outcome": there's still an ingrained stigma against failure in academia, but Ireen's own views on failure changed dramatically after she left academia
• How we deal with failure can make those failures worse: The easy fix for failure is to put more pressure on yourself - but this has hugely negative impacts on academics in the long run
• The importance of both self-compassion and a growth mindset: When we stop punishing ourselves for our failures, we're more able to learn from them

To listen back to our previous episodes on failure, check out the links below:

• Navigating Failure in Academia
• How to Handle Professional Failure
• From setback to success: supporting researchers after unsuccessful funding applications

You can learn more about Ireen using the link below:

• Ireen Litvak-Zur

All of our episodes can be accessed via the following playlists: 

• Research Impact with Ged Hall (follow Ged on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Impact Heroes with Ged Hall
• Open Research with Nick Sheppard (follow Nick on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research Careers with Ruth Winden (follow Ruth on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research talent management
• Meet the Research Culturositists with Emma Spary (follow Emma on Bluesky and LinkedIn)
• Research co-production
• Research evaluation
• Research leadership
• Research professionals
• Academic failure with Taryn Bell (follow Taryn on Bluesky and LinkedIn)

Follow us on Bluesky: @researcherdevleeds.bsky.social (new episodes are announced here), @openresleeds.bsky.social, @researchcultureuol.bsky.social

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