Reposition Failure: Failure Is Necessary, so Increase Your Organizational Dependence on It
What is your organization dependent on?
Not rhetorical. Go on. Answer that question.
(If just answering the question at your desk or wherever you are reading this isn’t monumental enough…like if you want a blockbuster cinematic climax...then feel free to open your attic window and shout it out in the storm.)
I am finding myself wrestling with advising JSS and Generis clients to be dependent on something. Isn’t part of a good strategic plan to be growing in collaboration, partnership, and synergy without being reliant on one thing or another?
If your work depends on one revenue stream, and it goes away…
If your tuition model depends on little to no financial aid, and then your student body demographic changes dramatically…
If 40% of your annual giving depends on 5 donors…
If your service model depends on in-person labor but 80% of your work force wants to WFH…
You get the picture.
But this is different. Depending on failure isn’t depending on a strategy or tactic; instead, it is depending on the position of failure as an aspect of every strategy or tactic. It is the assumption that failure will be either the carry on bag or the one personal item that gets brought on every flight. When you depend on failure, you don’t proceed without a healthy dose of trial and error in the very design of your strategy. You cannot be sure the next step is the right next step until you’ve seen the result of four wrong steps. And over time, you begin depending on failure (and especially what you learn from failure) to be a part of every new initiative your organization pursues.
Failure, and learning from failure (we call it “failure recoil”) is simply that critical to being innovative as a business, independent school, or nonprofit organization.
A Failure Dependent Environment
Be warned: failure dependence is a team sport and not a solo-adventure. You cannot expect failure to start by accident, from gentle nudging to the R&D team, at the grassroots level, or from the next gen charismatic leader on your team. No. This comes from you and involves the whole team. You are going to have to moderate failure dependence as a system-wide priority.
The IDEO design company isn’t the innovation leader in the US because they employ the F.O.A.T. (Failing-est of All Time). No, it is a team, a culture, and a methodology dedicated to trial, failure, and learning that makes their work so effective in problem solving. And so, for your organization, that requires your leadership to create the environment for failure to come to the fore. Don’t go solo-failure. Don’t hire “Can’t Get Right” and expect her/him to change culture all on their own. This starts with you as the leader. You have some expectation, culture, and priority redesign in the very near future.
Expect Resistance to Failure Dependence
And it is very likely that they are going to hate it at first.
People are failure averse. We are programmed to avoid failure at all costs. All grades except that one keep you moving forward in our education system. You are surrounded by a high-achieving leadership team, and I bet they applied for their cabinet positions by maximizing their victories and minimizing their failures on their resumes and during their interviews. It is human nature to embellish all things not associated with failure. You aren’t likely to be bringing the idea of failure dependence to a team that has been eager to walk that talk.
So what do you do? You elevate the importance of learning and innovation. You remove the stigma of failure. You halt the blame game. You bring a whole new paradigm to the way things are going to be done. This is your moment to shine as the leader of “what’s going to be new and different moving forward.” Dr. Edmondson has your pep talk ready, and she boiled it down to 6 words.
“The blame-dodging reflex thwarts learning.”
Expect a few raised eyebrows when you share that with your leadership team, Board of Directors, or campaign/project committee. The phrase packs a punch. Blame dodging is a natural reflex that we all have. But that auto-response is detrimental to progress. And if your organization is built for progress, you should expect to see a few eyes widen.
And when that happens, you’ve got them. The moment is right for real culture shaping. Don’t wait for the next meeting. Don’t even record it in the meeting minutes. Take command of that moment and install your new expectations for failure dependency in the organization. Be clear, gentle, but resolute. The future of your organization relies on its ability to navigate the risk, failure, innovation triad.
Conclusion: Is Failure Dependency Really Necessary?
Here is our perspective. If you haven’t dealt with the aftermath of trying something that failed, your organization is dying. And if you don’t have a team that regularly deals with the consequences of trial and failure, then your leadership will grow tired of your mission, generally lose interest in the place you hold in improving society, and start to look for better opportunities elsewhere. But that does not have to be your reality. And we are pretty sure that you would covet the idea of being known as the place to work where ideas are championed, failure is expected, and innovation is central. When that happens, you’ll have the best leadership team you can imagine. Do you want to see rising happen? Initiate failure dependency in your organization. Do you want to watch for rising? Look for organizations that are doing this already.
If you want a hand in getting something like this envisioned, designed, and implemented, please reach out. If you have embraced Failure Dependency and have a victory story to share, please leave a comment on our LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook posts.
Next Up: Inviting Failure to Dinner: How to Fit Intelligent Failure into your Independent School, Business, Nonprofit Organization, or Board of Director’s Culture
