BellandoLand

In How to Fail – Part 1, we learned about the tension that exists in many organizations between the desire to give their people the opportunity for innovation, creativity and experimentation and the need to see success in our business endeavors. These two goals are often at odds with one another, as how do we introduce freedom without the risk of failure? In this post we will examine a method by which we can have both.

When I was a child, we didn’t have networks that were 24×7 devoted to cartoons. Believe it or not, we had to wait until Saturday mornings from 8am – noon to watch cartoons and that was pretty much it. However, once a year, during December, the networks would broadcast these stop motion, animated Christmas stories. Time stood still as we waited for these to appear and one of my favorites was “Santa Clause is Coming to Town”. In that 48 minutes of magic, there was a song that has stuck with me to this day and will help explain my next point. It was “Put One Foot in Front of the Other”.

Saint Nick shows the Winter Warlock how to change his ways (a seemingly insurmountable task). He explains (in song) that by taking many small steps, soon you will get to your ultimate goal (“put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walkin’ out the door!”).

The answer to relive this tension we spoke of is found in this statement: “It’s OK to fail, but its not OK to fail catastrophically”.

The key to providing your teams the environment for innovation, creativity and experimentation is to give them permission to try and to fail. But as a leader, you must be sure that if (when) they fail, the failure would not be catastrophic to the organization.

If you have been responsible for a child, you know this instinctively. If a child is learning to walk, you do not put them on the edge of a cliff and let them go. No, you place them in your living room, with cushions and pillows all around. They can fail, but it will not be catastrophic if they do.

When they are learning to drive, you take them to an empty parking lot to practice parallel parking, rather than downtown main street at a busy time of day. They can fail, but it will not be catastrophic if they do.

As leaders, one of our jobs is to help our people select proper goals. Goals that will stretch them, teach them, and help the organization, but will not be catastrophic if they fail. Too often leaders do not exercise the wisdom and mentoring to help their people find that sweet spot. But if we do, over time, we will see our people succeed and before we know it, they will be “walkin’ out the door”.

As I considered what to name this post, my first thought was not “How to Fail”. I am not sure how attracted people would be to what seemed like a step by step article on how to do that which we all seek to avoid. However, hear me out on this.

A few years ago, a movie chronicling the flight of Apollo 13 was released. Within that movie, there is a famous scene in which Flight Director Gene Kranz (played brilliantly by Ed Harris) leads a brainstorming session with his team, to explore ways to have the crew returned safely back to earth. As he searched for answers, his team’s only contribution was a list of reasons why the task before them was not only difficult to achieve, but was in fact impossible to accomplish.

Kranz then announces the famous line that later became the title of his book, “Failure is Not an Option” (if you have not seen the movie, the scene is worth watching here).

I have seen people use this snippet as a motivation tool to provide energy and challenge to a team to overcome impossible odds (just as the Apollo 13 team did). In the right context, this has proven very effective. But I have also seen teams become paralyzed as the risk of failure outweighs the reward of success. If failure is not allowed, then the only way we can be certain to avoid it, is to not try at all. This paralysis can be deadly to the life of an organization, for without risk innovation, creativity and growth will come to a standstill.

In response to this issue, it has become popular in the last many years for thought leaders in corporate management to coin the term “fail fast”. It is intended to help companies to foster a culture in which creativity and innovation are encouraged. Of course, the goal is not to encourage failure for failure’s sake, but rather to allow people to make mistakes and learn from them.

But there are times in which Kranz’s words ring true. At times, the stakes are so great, that we must succeed or there will be consequences that are beyond our control such as the loss of a customer or potentially, even worse. In such cases, it is easy for management to send mixed messages.

We have all seen situations where leaders have given verbal consent to allow failure, but when it actually happens, there have been consequences for the team that tried but did not succeed.

So how do we reconcile the need for allowing innovation, creativity and experimentation, but at the same time recognize that there are situations in which we absolutely must succeed? Find out in Part 2 of this Blog Post.