1. Encourage young people to analyse what happened when things go wrong. If you can see mistakes, it is easier to do things differently next time. Share them among the group. Learning from other people's mistakes is always less painful and often cheaper. Analysis also helps soften the blow. Enabling young people to see the cause of what went wrong means they can place the blame on circumstances or specific choices, rather than labelling themselves as failures.
2. Do not fear the risk of failure. Youth workers have an admirable tendency against setting young people up for failure. But if that means workers micro-manage things, work behind the scenes, plug the gaps and make things happen, that is disempowering to young people. Striking the balance is hard. But if participation and self-determination are going to be real, failure has to be an option. Design the possibility out, and you make success meaningless.
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