We often describe innovation, discovery, or learning as good luck. But chance only rewards those who are curious enough to recognize its gifts.

When Horace Walpole coined 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘺 in 1754, he drew on the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip whose heroes made discoveries through the ability to notice meaning in the unexpected. By the 1950s, serendipity had become shorthand for the happy accident that fuels research, invention, and creativity. Serendipity involves the capacity to see significance in the unplanned and turn uncertainty into insight.

People who prized serendipity were those who turned chance encounters into learning moments. As one scientist put it:
“We rely increasingly upon serendipity for the advancement of our science.”

In safety, innovation, or leadership, true progress often begins with attentive openness. That is the ability to spot value in what wasn’t sought. Every near miss, every deviation, every anomaly, and generally every unexpected consequence is a potential discovery in disguise.
Serendipity, then, is the discipline of curiosity, I.e. the readiness to learn from surprise. We don’t find serendipity but we create the conditions for it.

In safety management, we can be obsessed with planning and prediction. Cultivating serendipity means supporting awareness, reflection, and being willing to explore what situations might teach us. That’s not just about unhappy accidents, but about happy accidents too.

A great book!

Source:

Merton, R.K., Barber, E. (2003). The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity - A study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science. Princeton University Press.