Regrets. We all have them, right? But what if there is transformative power in this misunderstood emotion? In his brand-new book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, #1 New York Times best-selling author, Daniel Pink says that if you can reckon with your regrets in fresh, imaginative ways, you can enlist them to make smarter decisions, perform better, and deepen your sense of meaning and purpose.
Get a taste for Daniel’s fresh insight in this excerpt from his new book, The Power of Regret.
But most times, reflecting even a bit on how we might benefit from a regret boosts our subsequent showing.
Even thinking about other people’s regrets may confer a performance boost. Several studies have introduced a character named Jane, who’s attending a concert of her favorite rock band. Jane begins the concert in her ticketed seat, but then moves to another seat to be closer to the stage. A bit later, the band announces that promoters will soon randomly select a seat and give a free trip to Hawaii to whoever is sitting in it. Sometimes participants in this experiment hear that the seat that Jane recently switched to is the one that wins the free trip. Rejoice! Other times participants hear that the seat that Jane left is the one that wins. Regret! People who heard Jane’s If Only saga, and then took a section of the Law School Admission Test, scored 10 percent higher than a control group. They also did a better job of solving complex puzzles like the Duncker candle problem, a famous experimental test of creative thinking. Getting people to think counterfactually, to the experience even vicarious regret, seems to “crack open the door to possibilities,” Galinksy (from the negotiation studies) and Gordon Moskowitz put it. It infused people’s subsequent deliberations with more strength, speed, and creativity.
To be sure, regret doesn’t always elevate performance. Lingering on a regret for too long, or replaying the failure over and over in your head, can have the opposite effect. Selecting the wrong target for your regret—say, that you wore a red baseball cap at the blackjack table rather than that you took another card when you were holding a ten and a king—offers no improvement. And sometimes the initial pain can momentarily throw us. But most times, reflecting even a bit on how we might benefit from a regret boosts our subsequent showing.
The researchers concluded that it was the setback itself that supplied the fuel.
Feelings of regret spurred by setbacks might even be good for your career. A 2019 study by the Kellogg School of Management’s Yang Wang, Benjamin Jones, and Dashun Wang looked at a fifteen-year database of applications that junior scientists had submitted for a prestigious National Institutes of Health grant. The study authors selected more than a thousand applications that hovered near the rating threshold necessary to win the grant. About half of the applicants just cleared the threshold. They got the grant, eked out a narrow win, and eluded regret. The other half fell just short. These applicants missed the grant, endured a narrow miss, and suffered regret. Then the researchers examined what happened to these scientists’ careers. People in the narrow miss If Only group systemically outperformed those in the narrow win At Least group in the long run. These Silver Emmas of science were subsequently cited much more often, and they were 21 percent more likely to produce a hit paper. The researchers concluded that it was the setback itself that supplied the fuel. The near miss likely promoted regret, which spurred reflection, which revised strategy, which improved performance.
Excerpt(s) from THE POWER OF REGRET: HOW LOOKING BACKWARD MOVES US FORWARD by Daniel H. Pink, copyright (c) 2022 by Daniel H. Pink. Used by permission of Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Are you ready to work smarter and live better in 2022?
18,000+ change-driven men and women like you are gathering for our online exclusive leadership event featuring five leadership experts, including Daniel Pink on The Power of Regret.
Join us on February 24, 2022, for The Global Leadership Summit: Special Edition! Get your tickets today at GlobalLeadership.org/SpecialEdition.
Global Leadership Network
GLN Staff Writer | globalleadership.orgDaniel Pink
#1 New York Times Best-Selling AuthorUnderstand Your Regret, Understand What You Value
TOPICS IN THIS ARTICLE
CallingDecision-MakingLeading YourselfPerformance ManagementRegrets. We all have them, right? But what if there is transformative power in this misunderstood emotion? In his brand-new book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, #1 New York Times best-selling author, Daniel Pink says that if you can reckon with your regrets in fresh, imaginative ways, you can enlist them to make smarter decisions, perform better, and deepen your sense of meaning and purpose.
Get a taste for Daniel’s fresh insight in this excerpt from his new book, The Power of Regret.
Even thinking about other people’s regrets may confer a performance boost. Several studies have introduced a character named Jane, who’s attending a concert of her favorite rock band. Jane begins the concert in her ticketed seat, but then moves to another seat to be closer to the stage. A bit later, the band announces that promoters will soon randomly select a seat and give a free trip to Hawaii to whoever is sitting in it. Sometimes participants in this experiment hear that the seat that Jane recently switched to is the one that wins the free trip. Rejoice! Other times participants hear that the seat that Jane left is the one that wins. Regret! People who heard Jane’s If Only saga, and then took a section of the Law School Admission Test, scored 10 percent higher than a control group. They also did a better job of solving complex puzzles like the Duncker candle problem, a famous experimental test of creative thinking. Getting people to think counterfactually, to the experience even vicarious regret, seems to “crack open the door to possibilities,” Galinksy (from the negotiation studies) and Gordon Moskowitz put it. It infused people’s subsequent deliberations with more strength, speed, and creativity.
To be sure, regret doesn’t always elevate performance. Lingering on a regret for too long, or replaying the failure over and over in your head, can have the opposite effect. Selecting the wrong target for your regret—say, that you wore a red baseball cap at the blackjack table rather than that you took another card when you were holding a ten and a king—offers no improvement. And sometimes the initial pain can momentarily throw us. But most times, reflecting even a bit on how we might benefit from a regret boosts our subsequent showing.
Feelings of regret spurred by setbacks might even be good for your career. A 2019 study by the Kellogg School of Management’s Yang Wang, Benjamin Jones, and Dashun Wang looked at a fifteen-year database of applications that junior scientists had submitted for a prestigious National Institutes of Health grant. The study authors selected more than a thousand applications that hovered near the rating threshold necessary to win the grant. About half of the applicants just cleared the threshold. They got the grant, eked out a narrow win, and eluded regret. The other half fell just short. These applicants missed the grant, endured a narrow miss, and suffered regret. Then the researchers examined what happened to these scientists’ careers. People in the narrow miss If Only group systemically outperformed those in the narrow win At Least group in the long run. These Silver Emmas of science were subsequently cited much more often, and they were 21 percent more likely to produce a hit paper. The researchers concluded that it was the setback itself that supplied the fuel. The near miss likely promoted regret, which spurred reflection, which revised strategy, which improved performance.
Excerpt(s) from THE POWER OF REGRET: HOW LOOKING BACKWARD MOVES US FORWARD by Daniel H. Pink, copyright (c) 2022 by Daniel H. Pink. Used by permission of Riverhead, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Are you ready to work smarter and live better in 2022?
18,000+ change-driven men and women like you are gathering for our online exclusive leadership event featuring five leadership experts, including Daniel Pink on The Power of Regret.
Join us on February 24, 2022, for The Global Leadership Summit: Special Edition! Get your tickets today at GlobalLeadership.org/SpecialEdition.
Never miss an inspiring leadership insight or the latest leadership news!
About the Author
Global Leadership Network
GLN Staff Writer
The Global Leadership Network is a community committed to learning from each other and using our influence to accomplish God’s purposes on earth. No matter where your influence is, when you commit to grow your leadership, everyone around you wins—businesses work for good, communities are transformed and churches thrive! Both global and diverse, our network includes partners in 1,400+ cities and 135+ countries. We are committed to deliver fresh, actionable and inspiring leadership content both at The Global Leadership Summit, and year-round through our digital platforms.
Daniel Pink
#1 New York Times Best-Selling Author
Daniel Pink is one of the best-selling nonfiction authors of the last decade. His books on work, business and behavior have won multiple awards, been translated into 41 languages and have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide. Pink was host and co-executive producer of Crowd Control, a National Geographic Television series on behavioral science. He also appears frequently on NPR, PBS, and other TV and radio networks in the U.S. and abroad. He has been a contributing editor at Fast Company and Wired as well as a business columnist for The Sunday Telegraph. His articles and essays have also appeared in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, The New Republic and other publications. For the last six years, London-based Thinkers50 has named him one of the top 15 business thinkers in the world. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University, where he was a Truman Scholar and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School. He has also received honorary degrees from several colleges and universities, including Georgetown University and the Pratt Institute. Pink is the best-selling author of 7 books including, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing named Amazon’s Best Business Book of 2018 and his latest book, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward, which releases in February 2022.