[Deke]

As a mentor/coach/teacher I think it is incorrect to choose or let someone fail. Instead we should do our best to give them the correct tools or suggestions to succeed. Teams can then move to bigger and better problems as a whole group.

I like Corsetto's fail faster approach, and to answer the op's question: Failures come often enough that we don't need to create them or let them continue when discovered.

The question I ask is: what are you going to do when you fail? I fail all the time and you are going to fail; there is no doubt about it, no one is perfect. Are you going to try another method, fix the problem, find a solution, or let it take you down?