Failure. A dirty word that stirs many negative connotations and emotions within us. It is often associated with defeat, loss, and embarrassment. When looking for a definition I came across "Failure is a lack of success in doing or achieving something, especially in relation to a particular activity."
The truth is, we all experience failure throughout our life, both big and small. Sooner or later, disorder and failure will interrupt your best laid plans. No matter how well prepared or perfect you thought it would be. Personally and professionally. In a business sense, a failure could occur from a wide range of sources, some within your control or from external factors. Common examples are; a marketing campaign that falls flat, an introduction of a new product that fails to sell, poor management decisions, or inadequate financial management.
The defining moments come from how you recover and build strength from the failure. When failure occurs, taking the time to reflect is the only way to prevent history repeating.
Four questions to ask yourself (and your team) are:
1. What was our cognitive bias?
Was anyone over-confident or excessively arrogant that the activity would be successful? This would indicate a high level of influence, ego or power imbalance within the team. It could also be reflected on by who had the most to lose.
Did we focus on sunk costs or promises made? Thinking we've come this far, creating an over-commitment.
Did we fail to look at all the information or options? Consider if the team focussed on the data that only supported the activity, and ignored the other data.
2. What was our level of psychological safety?
Does out team feel they could speak up safely? Perceived negative consequences can limit the psychological safety.
Did we encourage and equally respect everyone's opinions? Using different viewpoints or activities like De Bono's 6 thinking hats to get the best outcome.
Did the process of thinking or making decisions as a group, result in bias to one option? Avoiding group think or that "they all drank the cool-aid."
3. What was the sequence of events that brought on the failure?
Did the activities and events occur in a way we did not expect? Try to identify what were the red flags in the chain of events that were ignored. There are always red flags!
What were the pressures or deadlines we were working to? These could be time bound or financial, often creating an illusion of loss if not achieved. Consider how real was this pressure, often it is self-imposed or could have been delayed for the right outcome.
What were the "unknown unknowns?" These are the factors or events that were not expected and no matter past experiences, no one would have foreseen it occurring or the quantum of the impact.
4. What will build strength from this failure?
What specific actions will be put in place? Identify the steps you would take next time.
How will bias be called out? Building an open team culture with high psychological safety to encourage differing views and opinions.
How will we share and communicate about this experience? Putting the spotlight on the learning from what didn't work, and sharing widely helps others learn from your failure(s). This could be a tale of your business folklore, so others don't do the same.
As Henry Ford is quoted as saying, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” Don't let failure be a dirty word to you. It happens, learn from it, and keep moving forward.
This blog post was inspired by the teachings from the great grandmaster of failing forward, Professor Mike Shaner.
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