Learning from failure | David Damberger | TEDxYYC
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- David Damberger discusses "Learning From Failure" at TEDxYYC 2011.
David is the founder of Engineers Without Borders Calgary (EWB). After building the organization in Calgary and working with them in India, David spent four years building EWB's overseas programs as the Director of Southern African Programs. In this role, David consulted for dozens of African based companies, non-profits and governments in the fields of agriculture; food processing; water and sanitation; and mobile applications for development.
David currently works as a corporate strategy consultant and is a co-founder of Ethical Ocean, an e-commerce marketplace for the worlds top fair-trade, eco-friendly and sweatshop free products.
David holds a degree in engineering and a minor in entrepreneurship from the University of Calgary. He is also a Social Entrepreneuship MBA candidate at the University of Oxford. Recently, David was recognized as the youngest member of the Top 40 Alumni in the History of the University of Calgary.
David will be drawing on his work experience in Africa to speak about the transformative power of publicly admitting failure in the development aid sector which currently lacks accountability, creativity and transparency.
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10 years later, I still find this video humbling.
Awesome talk David. I'm with a chapter from EWB Australia and it's mind boggling to think that you guys also grasps the concept that community development has to be a long-term and sustaining program. We've done huge leg work into this and only now things are falling into fruition. Best of Luck!
Thank you for sharing your experience with us, David Damberger.
I hope I could remember to review and admit my mistakes from time to time and also help spread this important message to others for many years to come.
Stonelli00, David here. You are completely correct that these lessons have been learnt many times in the past 20-40 years. The unfortunate thing is that an astonishing number of NGO's and development agencies are still making these same mistakes over and over. EWB has made many of them as well. The public discourse around international development is still heavily biased towards "building schools, drilling wells, and giving things for free". My objective was to challenge that message
Great talk! Being a do gooder is not enough whether it's in Africa or in our own communities. Are we truly helping others or helping ourselves feel better? We need to judge the long term sustainability of our actions/plans/work + our true impact! In our own communities, how much do we spend on treating sick people due to diet/lifestyle and obesity instead of prevention..?!
this is the best talk that I have heard in my life. Really inspiring.
David... inspiring talk, for sure. And dealing with serious issues surrounding aid programmes and solutions to problems in developing countries. The whole issue of failure is very important: Skinner said that 'a failure is not always a mistake... it may be the best one can do under the circumstances... the real mistake it to stop trying'. Your attitude towards failure looks positive and is healthy.
I live in a country where failure happens but is never admitted. We need your mind in Finland.
Excellent presentation. David - you are courageous to be so vulnerable in this presentation. Thank-you for giving me permission to look at my own failures in a positive light.
That talk was both moving and informative, I really really think that if we had more people like David at the helm the world would be a far far better place.
Thank u David, it's a very illuminating talk. As I know, some development projects include the process of program evaluation. So the staff had to consider the effectiveness of their projects rather than just spend the money.
Thank for being honest, I have been to Africa over 8 times, and am presently in Togo, We Africa, and the stories of NGO's are rampant.
This is an amazing talk - so educational and also inspiring
Great talk, very inspiring. I wish these solutions were available in the typical charity gift catalogues
One of the best TED talks ever!
I agree completely and have had the same feelings when I tried helping.
@stonelli00 @daviddamberger
There are probably two kind of people in the aid industry: people like stonelli00 that were either born as a perfect human being knowing everything what is right or perfectly educated to be afraid of and to avoid making mistakes; or people like David, that have the courage to admit their mistakes and that are able to learn something from them.
I'm studying development studies and I truly believe that aid has failed. But David gives us a hope.
Davids talk is inspiring
Truly excellent observation, David.
To be honest, I think that not only NGOs but also GOs are long overdue this honesty infusion of which you speak.Excellent question you relay here. We all know the answer to that one: nobody.
Fantastic TED talk.
Important video - thank you - this is the way to change
As an engineer, I can honestly say that I felt myself tearing up when he admitted the failure of his project.
Despite the propaganda to the contrary, we give a very big fuck about the lifespan of our designs. We pour our hearts into our designs, and when they fail, it hurts.
Props to David for standing up and admitting his mistakes and the failure of his design, it takes a lot more than most people realise.
a very interesting clip but I would have liked to know more about this new orientation, this 'software work'.
Imparare per gestire i progetti dagli insuccessi, analizzare i fallimenti per progettare e realizzare interventi che portino effettivi benefici ai destinatari.
You are just proving Amani’s point by telling him again what to do instead of asking him if he has a solution or a proposition. Sometimes it’s not too much what we can teach and do, but what we can learn and receive.
This kid is great. Anyone who can get an old skeptic like me to sit up and take notice is getting somewhere. Engineers have made the world wealthy; they have the talent to save it too. The rest of us should get out of the way and get behind them.
As an aid worker, my motto is: Make sure you make new mistakes, not old ones. Many people (myself included) feel the NGO sector is long overdue for an infusion of honesty about how hard this work is and just how many mistakes are made, unfortunately some over and over again. Some lessons we have to learn for ourselves. Others, however, are entirely avoidable. As someone once said to me, "Who can afford endless learning at the cost of the suffering of people?"
Love these
Great presentation
great talk
Check the Website of the NGO Helvetas in Switzerland, and go to Advisory Services -> Professional Competences -> Documented Experiences -> Infrastructure (sorry, as I said, I cannot post URLs)
Failure is good, it means you are doing something, it is nice to hear one person, of one NGO admitting they did not plan for the future. I have been to 90 countries, and I am embarassed when I am in the same room. This is not right, I should be proud of them, but they come with the solution.
I'm trained as a psychologist, but I actually started out in engineering. And I remain an engineer at my core, really: I take an engineering approach to my practice of psychology. So I can honestly say that I felt myself tearing up also at that point.
Yes, I also know the propaganda stuff - it's done against psychologists too. And the good ones among us 'give a very big fuck' about the outcomes of our work. You and your designs... us and our interventions. Same feelings.
I second those props.
This vid should have more views. Lets try n get this seen everyware
Go to the section "25 steps to safe water and sanitation" and download/read the document there!
keep up the good work..God bless you ^_^
Very good concept! I slut! this man because he speak with no shame for the shake of humanity
What where the two companies you where talking about?
to people who are not involved with AID this might still be pretty new, and even if people are familiar with it, it's not a bad thing to bring more attention to it, because it is possible that some NGOs are still making the same mistakes.
self sustainable. i believe "you can lead a horse to water but its better if he can find his own way"
I've been looking for a similar TED talk for about a year now on the failure of Playpumps and LifeStraws without luck. I wish i had saved it somewhere. Does anyone remember the name of the speaker or the talk itself?
Not sure if this is what you wanted, it's a Pop Tech speech. vimeo.com/17292835
I agree w/ Andy Amadi. They don’t need a messiah from here. The main problem with charity is charity. It is semi-evil. Engineering is just a mean to the psychological response. Why is that people find it more appealing and better to send money far away to people they don’t know in circumstances they ignore? Why can’t we help the people next door? I am not saying we should not help others far away, but we need to get closer to them if we want to help, and help them to be self-sufficient.
Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
What does this have to do with learning from failure?
@ Hedonophobia @iHennigs @daviddamberger No, I don't know WHY those govs didn't. But I was knowledge manager for many years in a large NGO & our only goal was to admit mistakes and learn from them. And establishing local social structures & maintenance mechanisms have been the most important issue in our work already 20 years ago. I would love to send you an URL with exactly those documented experiences from many years ago - how can I post a URL in these comments? TH-cam doesn't allow me to do.
My big question when I think about these types of places is: Why do people live where there is no access to fresh water, or live where the land can't support agriculture?
In other words: Who's bright idea was it to build a town in the desert?
Kool buddy!
How does this not fit into the TED series?
Read through all the positive comments from people who have been inspired by this talk, informed and learnt something. If you/your organization had this approach for so long, then maybe you should have presented it on the TED stage many years ago - to reach more people, thus enabling more to benefit from it. (Maybe that's a mistake to add to the list?)
A prime example why just throwing money at the issue does not work, you have to be willing to give more than some low % of your pay check or income to help. Like input, knowledge time etc.
Instead of just giving them aid and baby feeding them like dependent and useless infants, give them the ability to take care of themselves better on their own. In the end it will cost less money and bring much more good.
was BP the one that covered up?
+gracechampagne No , there was no way to cover that up
@iHennigs Yes, I know these things do happen time and again - even today. But there are other resons for organisations to continue doing those mistakes: political agendas and power plays, the need to dispurse budgets, getting rid of domestic overproduction, ... They do it against their better knowledge. They will gladly admit their failure and do it again the very next day. That's the patology of the system.
And again, many organisations are very diligent reporting their mistakes...
Wow
Just stop giving the fish and teach them to fish. They must raise up and fight for education and learn skills that are useful. Stop treating Afrikaans and Indians as if they were incapable people. They need to be independent. My son attended this Ted Talk that why I watched it...
That's why they killed Muammar Gaddafi: because HE brought independent fresh water to his people.
Don't think I'm a kid who just wants to insult, I don't usually insult but your comment crossed a line.
First of all, homosexual is not an insult just like heterosexual is not an insult. Second, you have no proof of me being french you're just assuming based on nothing. Third, when you don't know something, shut the fuck up and don't say anything. It's better to stay silent and look stupid instead of speaking and proving it. "They removed Gaddafi because he gave his people fresh water" might actually be THE stupidest thing I've ever heard so I just had to comment.
After 5 year working for NGO. the only thing i can say is, NGO stand for Nothing Going On!
@stonelli00 let me read the document this evening...
i guess we need technician without boarders to fix the problem :P
@iHennigs @daviddamberger Sorry, iHenning, that's precisely not the case. I have worked for over 10 years with (many!) development organisations - NGOs and public organisations alike! - where admitting mistakes is done on a quite a massive scale. I am far from perfect and I don't know a lot, but I can rightfully and without exageration claim that I have never made a mistery out of this and have always made transparent where we can learn from those mistakes.
It shows on the screen behind him. BP and Toyota. BP admitted mistakes and Toyota swept under the rug or just ignored.
a good lesson for me, i guess
did he say aid INDUSTRY?
Today I am sorry I'm not an engineer.
@iHennigs Engineers without Borders could have short-cut their learning curve by about 10 years...
I'm assuming that you are either an engineer from Africa or know an engineer from Africa. May I suggest that instead of posting a complaint about western arrogance on youtube (generally ineffective), that you send Mr. Damberger a message and start a conversation? I can guarantee that he'll be glad to hear from you.
BP's failure was a lack of ethics.
looked like he was trying to sit near friends
@Hedonophobia @daviddamberger @stonelli00 Admiting their failures is the best what an organization can do. We shouldn't generalize but as David says the same mistakes are being made over and over again. Some organizations build a bridge in the middle of the desert because they think it is needed. Or let's buy "washing machines" for everybody in the village X with no electricity. Or let's take tones of milk powder from europe to the country Y endangering the existence of the local milk industry.
The arrogance of western people, thinking that you have all the solutions. Completely ignoring the African engineers who know both the people and the technologies but with access to the funds to find solutions.
Are you an engineer? Have you any idea of how engineers solve problems? They solve them by talking to each other. It doesn't matter if you are in China, India, South America or Africa. That you take exception to my gentle advice to be more professional shows that you are clueless about the art.
I think teacher salaries are sexy...
Nothing will ever change.
There will always be a slave class and an elite class.
Trying to change this is a complete waste of time and energy.
Why, why, Oh Why do Canadians/Americans talk so fast when delivering a speech? For heaven's sake I only pick up every fourth word, and another guy on this channel talks about "Pink cry attic" cancer. Its pancreatic.
If there is no water in Malawi, why are they living there? why are there MILLIONS living there? why are we helping India, who has nuclear weapons and MILLIONS of engineers themselves?? how about some birth control??
I'm sorry, but the first 10 minutes are old hat! We have learned every single sentence already 20 years ago (even before David was born) - except David, who presents them as if they were something revolutionary and new, a big break-through that came to him and EwB! David, why didn't you educate yourself first from those who have been in business for many years? I don't understand how this fits into the TED series...
Great presentation