Learning how to be successful - whether as a student planning their next career step, a negotiator looking for the best deal, or a new hire learning the ropes of a novel work environment - often involves seeking advice from people who have had relevant experiences. Little work has been done on how the way in which we solicit the advice changes the nature of the advice we receive. When we seek advice, we usually ask for advice on what to do in order to be successful and seldom inquire about how to avoid failures. In this research, we find, however, that this overlooked latter approach inquiring about how to avoid failures can actually help elicit more novel advice. While asking about ways to obtain success is the predominant method (S1 & S3), advice questions framed around failure avoidance were perceived by advice-givers as being more unique, memorable and necessary to ask (S2 & S5). Ultimately, we find that both advice-seekers (S4) and advice-givers (S5) evaluate the content of the advice as more novel when the advice-seeker had inquired about how to avoid failures, compared to advice asking about how to achieve success. Arguably, novelty is an important distinguishing feature of advice, as it may present the advice-giver with innovative strategies and solutions that have not been contemplated. Knowing how to avoid failures may also particularly benefit novices who are most in need of this practical advice or in contexts where failures rates are highly or particularly costly. We have exploratory evidence to suggest that answering questions about how to avoid failure may trigger more deliberative thinking on the part of the advice-giver and help retrieve seldom shared information, which in turn results in more novel advice (S5). While much research has focused on whether we should ask for advice and who we should ask, our studies demonstrate that how we ask for advice also matters, and perhaps we can maximize on the utility of the advice received, particularly in situations where novel advice is valuable, by framing our advice-seeking around how to avoid failures.

Keywords: Learning, success, failure, seeking advice, novelty