'The Failure Toy' challenges notion of failing
The toy is a game of balance and experimentation.
LONDON (Reuters) - Toronto-based organization Twenty-One Toys has created ‘The Failure Toy’, which aims to challenge the notion that failure is something to be feared and hidden, rather something that can be practised and developed as a skill.
The company aims to teach us what textbooks can’t, such as empathy and creative collaboration, along with failure.
CEO and founder of Twenty-One Toys, Ilana Ben-Ari hopes that The Failure Toy will not only be a useful classroom tool but will also help people of all ages explore how they deal with failure, along with the risk, blame and competition associated with it.
"I don’t know a single person in their life that’s never failed, we all know that it’s going to happen, but I feel like in our education we’re practising failure abstinence, so we’re not teaching failure," Ben-Ari said.
"We’re using toys that teach the ‘f’ word (failure) to all ages. So we’re age six to CEO," she added.
The toy is a game of balance and experimentation. In teams, you compete for points which you earn when you successfully balance game pieces on an unstable base, you lose when pieces fall but get more points for taller structures.
"It’s quite a simple yet elegant activity that in five minutes gives you huge insight in how you deal with risk, how you deal with competition and how you deal with expectations of others," Ben-Ari said.
She emphasises the importance of failure becoming something that we are used to and comfortable with rather than feared: "In music and sports failure is called ‘practice’, but in our education, there’s no other word for it, it’s just ‘failure’."
Twenty-One Toys has also created the successful Empathy Toy, a game that requires players to solve a puzzle whilst blindfolded. They must listen to the instructions from others, facilitating discussions about the role of empathy and communication. The toy has reached over 100 schools and offices in 45 countries in five years.
The Failure Toy is part of a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds to bring toys to companies and educators around the world. It is available for pre-order for Summer 2020.
