Here an interesting piece on the value of intelligence and learning from Stand Up Eight in Learning with Confidence.
Only by making our usually internal processes visible can we (or anyone else) figure out if we’re on the right track or not. An unwillingness to make public mistakes often arises from a learner’s ideas about intelligence. If intelligence is believed to be a fixed asset, risk-taking holds little value (“I either get it or I don’t. If I don’t, I probably never will, so why risk looking like a fool?”). Conversely, if the learner believes that intelligence is a dynamic attribute that can be affected by effort, the risk of public stumbles are not as likely to hold them back from trying. This all speaks to the need to incorporate mechanisms into learning environments that will assist the learner and the teacher in discovering these preconceptions and in working to modify/correct them if necessary. (I’m reading [How People Learn](http://books.nap.edu/books/0309070368/html/ 23.html#page_middle), and I find it fascinating.)
How often do companies fail to recognise the intelligence of their employees. One example is the procedure manual. “We have the manual, we can’t make mistakes!” is a fine chant until that time a solution can’t be found in the manual. Do you rely upon and applaud the risk-taking intelligence of your employees or have you created a situation where they are too scared to use their intelligence to solve the problem for fear of failure.