Fiasco Fest: The Pedagogy Playbook

Project leader: Johanna Stadlbauer and Sabine Bergner Published: October 2, 2025 Arqus Alliance. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Logos and photographs are excluded from this licence. CC BY NC SA doi: 10.5281/zenodo.17249210 F IASCO FEST THE PEDAGOGY PLAYBOOK 03 04 07 11 17 23 contents About the project ‘Fiasco Fest Goes Arqus’ Approaching the topic of failure in academia Administrative instructions for hosting a Fiasco Fest Step-by-step guide for facilitating a Fiasco Fest workshop Suggestions for participant handout, interactive lecture script, flip charts Imprint The project centres around changing attitudes towards failure in academia and fostering a supportive community among researchers. It consists of three components. The first and main component is a party-workshop called ‘Fiasco Fest’. The Fiasco Fest is a two-plus hour experience lab, designed to provide a safe space where researchers can share as much or as little as they want of their stories on setbacks and failures. A facilitator offers psychological insights and tools that can assist researchers in coping with challenges, enabling them to approach their next setback with care (and perhaps even humour). The party-workshop’s main aim is to maintain the creativity, motivation, and commitment necessary for success in the work and careers of young researchers. The second component is this Pedagogy Playbook, which summarises the main aspects of the Fiasco Fest workshop. The final component is a train-thetrainer session, which provides training to facilitators of future Fiasco Fests. About the project ‘Fiasco Fest Goes Arqus’ ‘Fiasco Fest goes Arqus’ is an activity made possible through the Arqus Innovation Fund and was implemented from 01.10.2024 to 15.09.2026 with the following partners: University of Granada, University of Graz, Leipzig University, University of Lyon 1, Maynooth University, University of Minho, Padua University, Vilnius University and University of Wrocław . The partners who brought this project to life are Carole Allouche, Laura Bousquet, Dominika Bukowska, Marian Crowley Henry, Katarzyna Kajdanek, Katriona O’Sullivan, Sara Raponi, Stéphanie Thillet, and Matteo Volpin. Their backgrounds are diverse, bringing insights from psychological research, PhD career development, as well as empowerment of female scholars. The authors of this text are Johanna Stadlbauer and Sabine Bergner. We thank Fliss Badge for editing and Alma Kovačević for research help. share their vocational setbacks in an environment characterised by kindness, support, and encouragement become better at appraising setbacks and reacting appropriately develop more awareness of personal resources to handle setbacks become aware that what is perceived as a fiasco is often the result of systemic failures, not personal inadequacy create supportive, self-organized peer networks. The Fiasco Fest workshop and the project ‘Fiasco Fest Goes Arqus’ were developed at the University of Graz in 2022 by Sabine Bergner and Johanna Stadlbauer. TO DATE, RUNNING THE WORKSHOP HAS PROVIDED PARTICIPANTS WITH THE OPPORTUNITY TO: 03 Johanna Stadlbauer is an expert in supporting the career development of researchers (from PhD candidate to tenure-track professor, with a special focus on postdocs). She leads the Research Careers Campus at the University of Graz, has a PhD in cultural anthropology and is internationally engaged in research culture change towards a more fun and kinder academia. Sabine Bergner is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Graz. She specialises in the topics leadership and entrepreneurship, combining insights from her background in psychology and business administration. Her research is published in international journals and books and is presented at worldwide conferences. By transferring research insights to workshops, she bridges the gap between the world inside academia and beyond. This Pedagogy Playbook was written to spread the concept of the Fiasco Fest beyond the Arqus Alliance. Its aim is to enable the competent delivery of the Fiasco Fest content, regardless of the person who is leading it or the group which is taking part. It also encourages adaptation for different audiences and different settings so that the Fiasco Fest can be fruitfully implemented in various settings. 04 What do we mean by ‘fiascos’? In the context of this Pedagogy Playbook, a ‘fiasco’ refers to an event that occurs in a researcher's professional life and elicits a strong negative emotional response, either in the moment or upon reflection. The workshop’s focus is on the subjective; on the individual perception of a life event as a fiasco (or as a setback, mishap, failure, mistake, waste of time, frustration, embarrassment, or even threat to their livelihood and future). Fiascos in the professional realm can occur due to chance, limited resources, because a person had or was given wrong information, was hindered by a person or an institutional barrier, wasn’t trained properly, due to a mismatch of skills, interests, and tasks, because of higher-level developments and many more factors. They can be huge and spectacular or they can be tiny – but their objective ‘size’ doesn’t always align with the perception of their impact on the affected person. Is there something specific about fiascos in academia? Fiascos are a core element of research. To find creative solutions and make new discoveries, researchers frequently try out things without knowing whether they will work. To a certain extent, fiascos are an inbuilt part of academic careers: every researcher encounters rejections for fellowships, jobs, or papers along their path. While failure and rejection are common in (academic) life, most people would very much prefer not to experience them personally. This attitude is mirrored in the wider research culture, and so there remains a scarcity of open spaces for discussing failure. Does a fiasco in academia have to be handled privately? In some corners of academia, personal experiences of ‘things that went wrong’ are handled as a community. For example, you may have heard of the shared spreadsheet that logs rejections, used by research teams or whole departments. Everyone who has been rejected for a grant (or anything else they want to keep track of as a community) logs it into a spreadsheet, and when the entries hit a certain number, the group hosts a celebration (or buys a pot plant for the office!). In case you would like to implement such a spreadsheet on fiascos or are looking for other ways to support an error-friendly research culture, check out this link: https://researchcareers-campus.uni-graz.at/de/fiasco-repository/. The ‘Fiasco Fest Goes Arqus’ project is a contribution to this movement for a more failure-friendly academic culture. Are there risks to promoting the public sharing of fiascos? Academia is currently highly competitive and often hierarchical. Researchers never know who their next peer reviewer or competitor for a job opening will be, as these individuals often turn out to be valued colleagues. Furthermore, good leadership skills are not evenly distributed, resulting in frequent reports of professional neglect and power abuse. Early career researchers are sometimes excluded from circles in which they could contribute, or from opportunities for career progression. As a result, individuals tend to be cautious about the impressions they create, in whom they confide, and the information they share. Approaching the topic of failure in academia 06 Why should you organise a Fiasco Fest? Existing inequalities make it more likely for some to succeed, while others are actually failed by the system. To enable researchers to benefit from vulnerability and community, it is essential to create conditions that make the academic environment safer for the public sharing of professional setbacks. As outlined above, activities like the Fiasco Fest are placed in a complex environment and can only play a small part in changing research culture. But organising a Fiasco Fest is still worthwhile, because central tenets of good research, such as risk-taking, courage, a spirit of innovation, and learning from mistakes should be equally accessible to all and should be carefully fostered. How can you explore this topic in more depth? Gaillard, S., Stefan, M. et al. (2022) ‘Ten simple rules for failing successfully in academia’, PLOS Computational Biology. Available at: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article? id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1010538 (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Gillie, D. (2024) ‘Failure: we're doing it wrong’, LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/failure-were-doing-wrong-darcey-gillie-eye5e/? trackingId=8NjVF8DHRl%2BVFhngsRhuHw%3D%3D (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Glass, R.L. (2000) ‘A letter from the frustrated author of a journal paper’, Journal of Systems and Software, 54(1), p. 1. Available at: https://ciencias.ulisboa.pt/sites/default/files/fcul/outros/A-Letterfrom-the-Frustrated-Author-of-a-Journal-paper.pdf (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Humbert, A.L. (2024) ‘The secret to academic "success": failing often’ [LinkedIn blog.] Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/secret-academic-success-failing-often-anne-laure-humbert-pgp1e/? trackingId=11Q2Y0poSf%2BsUlBhHNCJMw%3D%3D (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Jaremka, L.M., et al. (2020) ‘Common academic experiences no one talks about: repeated rejection, impostor syndrome, and burnout’, Perspectives on Psychological Science, 15(3), pp. 519–543. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1745691619898848?journalCode=ppsa (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Lixinski, L. (2023) ‘Narrating failure in academia: turning trash into treasure’, Times Higher Education. Available at: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/narrating-failure-academia-how-turntrash-treasure (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Loveday, V. (2017) ‘Luck, chance, and happenstance? Perceptions of success and failure amongst fixed-term academic staff in UK higher education’, British Journal of Sociology, 96(3), pp. 758-775. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-4446.12307 (Accessed: 12 Aug2025). Stefan, M. (2010) ‘A CV of failures’, Nature, 468, p. 467. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/nj7322-467a (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). University of Leeds (2024) ‘From setback to success: supporting researchers after unsuccessful funding applications’, Research Culture Uncovered, Episode 6 [Podcast], 27 March. Available at: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/63af4f69-5575-479a-9e27-5ecad10b8693 (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). University of Leeds (2024) ‘Navigating failure in academia’, Research Culture Uncovered, Episode 97 [Podcast], 11 December. Available at: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/63e171a2-5439-4bb1-8f685b6cc766130a/ (Accessed: 12 Aug 2025). Both the experience of failure and the public sharing of it are associated with different risks depending on personal circumstances. The implications of failure differ significantly for a tenured professor or a PhD candidate, and the public sharing of failures may feel more manageable for those with notable accomplishments. To an international scholar on a temporary contract, failure to secure more funding can jeopardise their right to remain in their country of residence and result in a loss of income. Despite their achievements, scholars from underrepresented backgrounds may have valid reasons for hesitating to publicly share the full spectrum of their academic experiences, including their failures. Administrative instructions for hosting a Fiasco Fest 07 This section contains information on how to prepare a Fiasco Fest. It is a guideline based on what has worked in the past and can be adapted to local requirements. Who are the intended participants? Up to 20 researchers Interdisciplinary and ideally brought together from different schools or universities At least one shared characteristic, such as having a temporary employment contract, being early-career, being a female scholar, having an interest in exploring careers beyond academia, etc What should the setting look like? Festive atmosphere in an unusual location (examples of what has worked previously: glasshouses in Botanic Gardens; a local bar that was entirely reserved for the Fiasco Fest) Drinks and snacks provided from the start; if possible: music, joyful decoration Chair circle, flip chart holder or a creative way to attach chart to the wall Some surfaces for participants to write on during the exercises Exhibition space that ideally allows for a double-sided view, such as glass partition walls Space for going outside and mingling (can encourage participants to exchange phone numbers and form support groups) What materials are needed? Metal bucket for burning little papers, lighter or matches Flip chart paper with instructions/lecture bullet points 20 felt-tip pens Sticky tape for exhibition 20 pieces of colourful paper for Top & Flop CVs 20 pieces of white paper 20 participant handouts with your local internal and external psychosocial support contact points Food and drink Optional: music and decoration How do you advertise the Fiasco Fest? Since this is an entirely novel concept, researchers might initially be hesitant to register. Therefore, approaching them individually about this opportunity can be helpful in addition to your usual ways of advertising an event. Below are some short and longer texts that can be used for the purpose of advertisement. They can also be adapted to local requirements. shorter text version 1 The Fiasco Fest provides an open, festive environment in which participants talk about highlights and failures of their careers so far. They subsequently analyse what they have experienced as ‘professional fiascos’ and why. Together, the participants then explore which resources they have already used to overcome inevitable setbacks and they receive psychological insights and more tools for personal development from professional trainers. The Fiasco Fest concludes with an exercise in letting go and an opportunity to mingle and exchange further. Facilitator: Target group: Location: Rejection is a common part of academia – and we aim to make it fun! The Fiasco Fest is a night where career misfortunes in academia are shared, snacks and drinks are served, laughs are had, and we celebrate each other as the excellent researchers we are, resiliently moving towards our best professional selves. Facilitator: Target group: Location: shorter text version 2 08 Longer text version 1 09 Failure in academia is often perceived as shameful and is rarely discussed openly. But failure is a core element of research, because in order to find creative solutions, we have to try out new things without knowing whether they will work. To change attitudes towards failure, and to foster a supportive community among researchers, we have come up with the idea of a party-workshop: the Fiasco Fest. The Fiasco Fest is a three-hour experience lab, designed to provide a brave space for researchers to share – as much or as little as they want – their stories on setbacks and failures, with a facilitator providing psychological insights and tools that help with coping, enabling researchers to handle their next fiasco with care (and maybe even humour), with the goal of experiencing peer support, and keeping up the creativity, motivation, and commitment needed to thrive in their work. It's important to understand that no one is forced to share anything – experiences are shared voluntarily, and written anonymously on paper. There will also be the opportunity to share and discuss contributions in a plenary setting. The important end point to the event is the move outside to the ‘fire pit’ (any metal bowl). Everyone gets to set light to their worst fiascos – those they want to let go. There will be food and drink. Facilitator: Target group: Location: Dear colleague, We have a special invitation for you (reason why you reach out to them specifically) (Date, time, location): Fiasco Fest: How to handle rejection and failure happily Rejection is a normal part of academia – and we aim to make it fun! The Fiasco Fest is a night where career misfortunes in academia are shared, snacks and drinks are served, laughs are had, and we celebrate each other as the excellent researchers we are. What happens at the Fiasco Fest? In a festive environment, researchers 1) record moments of pride and ‘fiascos’ in their career so far and share them in a ‘twilight exhibition’, 2) move on to analysing and exploring together what makes one's experiences a ‘fiasco’, 3) are provided with psychological insights and tools that help in coping with setbacks, enabling them to ‘handle their next fiasco with care’, and 4) take part in an exercise in letting go. It’s open to (target group) How to register (link to registration) Longer text version 2 8. The end is near: summing up the workshop 10’ The facilitator sums up briefly what has taken place during the whole workshop, what they hope the learning outcomes of the workshop were, and points out that while what will stay in people’s minds most today will be the misfortunes discussed, they should also reserve some time to dwell on the things they are proud of. The facilitator draws attention to the TOP side of the CVs, and all the things listed there, and suggests that participants find time in their everyday life to celebrate their achievements – both big and small. By way of closing, the facilitator can say thanks to the group or share their own personal impressions of the workshop. 9. Letting go: burning the fiascos and mingling 10’ (open-ended) The facilitator announces the last step: ‘Burn the fiasco(s) that you want to let go! White paper is passed around, and participants have a few minutes to note down something that they want to burn. Meanwhile, the facilitator sets up the fire pit or metal bowl and a lighter and waits for the participants to come to where the burning will happen. Participants set their fiascos on fire and drop them into the bowl. Now (more) drinks can be served, and participants are encouraged to mingle. Instructions: Please look at this fiasco from a different perspective and answer this: why was this experience needed and useful, how did it enrich your life? Next, please try to remember: what resources (personal, social, organisational, compensational) did you have and use to cope with the fiasco back then? After giving them seven minutes for their work, participants are asked – if they feel comfortable in doing so – to share how the exercise went. The facilitator sums up the participants’ answers, trying to draw out the learning and development component, and lists some of the coping mechanisms mentioned by the group members. The below should be understood as suggestions, to inspire the creating of individual faciltators’ workshop materials based on what concepts they are comfortable working with and what they think their audience can benefit from the most. Handout with contact points A handout with contact points is good to have because it showcases the supportive environment available to researchers. The message with the handout is that it is good to be prepared in case one experiences setbacks, and that it is good to seek professional support, both preventatively and in a crisis. The contacts on this handout should be tailored to fit the audience and their needs. Among useful contacts in the context of fiascos are: Employee or student counselling and psychosocial advice facilities/offices Ombudspersons, conflict resolution and anti-bullying services Anti-discrimination and gender equality contact points Research career development office Staff development unit Union representatives External (outside university) contacts for mental well-being and crisis support Relevant self-organised networks and representations of scholars and students Lecture script suggestion and source literature Below you will find a template for a script and references for the research articles from which the concepts used during the Fiasco Fest originate. Please feel free to adapt the script with concepts you are familiar with, and which serve the same purpose. Suggestions for participant handout, interactive lecture script, flip charts 1) There is a relationship between what happens in the workplace and what happens in our bodies From your responses, we see that despite our fiascos being work-related, and not in the physical realm like a car accident, a fire that burns down a house, or an armed conflict, we feel them very strongly in our body. Career misfortunes affect us on many levels: physiologically, we might experience sleeplessness, our heart rate changes, weight fluctuates, our behaviour is temporarily out of order; psychologically, they may affect our self-confidence, we might feel hopeless, there is tension; cognitively, we may experience memory loss, circular thoughts, difficulty in concentrating. Of course, you are all aware of this relationship between what happens in the social world – like in our jobs, in our research teams – and what happens inside us. This has also been described in research by developmental and social/behavioural scientists: the fact that society and the body are in an interplay. Happenings ‘outside’ the body impact the developing brain and body of an individual throughout their life. Similarly, how our health is, how our body and brain work influence how we interact and handle the world around us. In summary, social, cultural, economic, and biological factors are widely recognised as critical determinants of well-being by scholars such as occupational psychologists. 17 2) Our fiascos follow a pattern that we can try to analyse. When we look at our fiascos, initially they are: surprising, have an emotional component, cause an inner conflict, there is a moment when an obstacle presents itself that cannot be managed with resources that are immediately available, there occurs a narrowing down of our perception, there is a perceived threat to our balance in life. And as we also saw in our walk-through, we go through stages when fiascos occur. In the models of many psychologists, people who are confronted with a misfortune are said to move through several stages. Usually, these start with the exposure to stressors and attempts to restore homeostasis; failure to restore homeostasis; and then it goes from there. As many of you have described 1.in the beginning there is shock, you might feel paralysed, you feel down, you are in bed crying, 2. you react, which can at first feel chaotic and emotional, 3. you become active by accepting and searching for resources to handle the crisis, 4. here comes a new orientation, a way forward, a reframing. So we can see, crises aren’t just one single moment. And in them is the potential for personal development. 18 3) Crises can lead to growth. Maybe you have heard of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who describes the stages people go through when handling grief. One author who looks at the psychology of crisis in a similar manner to Kübler-Ross is Verena Kast, who describes a specific type of crisis, one that leads to growth. a. This kind of crisis starts with a state of ‘not wanting to accept it’ (this may include a feeling of emptiness, as if petrified, the impression that one is dreaming and the loss is not real, a shock reaction, a denial of the problem). b. Then comes a phase of emerging, chaotic emotions (such as anger, rage, guilt, searching for someone to blame, the feeling of having to pull yourself together, restlessness, doubts about self-worth and competence). c. There follows a phase in which one begins to understand the meaning of the misfortune, experiencing the beginnings of an acceptance of what has happened, starting to take personal responsibility for one’s life and beginning to feel joy and relief. d. This all ends with a new relationship with oneself and the world, which can include the emergence of new values, the development of new relationships, snew insight are tested, and new ways of behaving and experiencing are tried out. But what do we need to make it more likely that we can learn and move on from our fiascos? 4) In order for our fiasco to be an opportunity for growth, we need resources. Short answer: We need a balance between stressors and resources. In a model from the 1980s by psychologists Lazarus and Folkman, stress occurs when individuals perceive a discrepancy between the demands of a situation and what they feel they can cope with. Similarly, the socalled Job–Demands–Resources–Model from occupational psychology describes how well-being in the work context can be upheld. It looks at the balance between demands and resources and what is needed so that job demands do not result in burnout. Among these resources are things like autonomy, support, and feedback, which lead to higher engagement and better performance at work. These resources can reduce the impact of negative factors present in your work life – such as our fiascos. And there is a practical component to the Lazarus model, which we will use now. According to Lazarus and Folkman, individuals engage in primary appraisal (assessing the significance of the difficult situation) and secondary appraisal (evaluating their resources for coping with what is happening). These can be : body-related resources (physiological) mentality-related resources (psychological) For our purposes, how does that work? Primary appraisal means we assess what is happening and try to understand if the situation holds more meaning that we see at first – that can allow moving on from our initial assessment of it as a fiasco. We might realise that we can reframe it as something that holds potential for our development, that has given something to our life. Secondary appraisal means you look at the resources available to handle fiascos well and integrate them into your life. We will do that now. social resources material resources Literature on the Biosocial Model of Health Bolton, D. and Gillett, G. (2019) The biopsychosocial model of health and disease, Palgrave Pivot, Cham. Engel, G. L. (1977) ‘The need for a new medical model: a challenge for biomedicine’, Science, 196(4286), pp. 129–136. Literature on crisis and transformative potential Cullberg, J. and and Lundin, T. (eds.) (2006), Crisis and Development, Nature and Culture, Stockholm, 5th ed., Berghahn, Stockholm. Kast, V. (2013) The creative leap: psychological transformation through crisis. Rosenthal, U. and Boin, A. (2001) ‘The changing world of crises’, in Rosenthal et al. (eds), Managing crises: threats, dilemmas, opportunities, Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, pp. 3-27. 19 Literature on stress and coping Biggs, A., Brough, P. and Drummond, S. (2017) ‘Lazarus and Folkman's psychological stress and coping theory’, in Cooper, C. L. and Quick, J. C. (eds) The handbook of stress and health: a guide to research and practice, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Hoboken, pp. 351–364. Folkman, S. (1997) ‘Positive psychological states and coping with severe stress’, Social Science and Medicine, 45, pp. 1207–1221. Lazarus, R. S. (1966) Psychological stress and the coping process. Literature on the Job Demands Resources Model Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F. and Schaufeli, W. B. (2001) ‘The job demands– resources model of burnout’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), pp. 499–512. Flip chart templates and more resources These are original flipcharts used in the workshops, created by Sabine Bergner. A broader selection of flip charts, which have been created and used by Sabine Bergner and other facilitators during the Fiasco Fest, is available on our website: https://postdoc.uni-graz.at/de/ fiasco-fest-goes-arqus/. They can be used as inspiration and adapted as needed. 20 21 22 This is an Arqus Innovation Fund bottom-up initiative (duration: 01.10.2024 to 15.09.2026). Five Arqus European University Alliance partner universities are taking part: University of Lyon 1, University of Graz, Maynooth University, Padua University, and University of Wrocław. Main contact person for the project: Johanna Stadlbauer: [email protected] Grafik Design & Layout of THE PEDAGOGY PLAYBOOK: Hannah Petzl: [email protected] The Arqus European University Alliance is co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or EACEA. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them. imprint