Celebrate Failure?

Failure is a tricky subject in the corporate world. On the one hand, when asked, most managers will admit that failure is a “good thing” since it allows employees to learn and grow. On the other hand, mistakes often elicit a range of negative reactions, including public criticism, sarcasm, and downright hostility.

I ran across an article I saved from an airline magazine some time ago entitled Celebrate Failure (Samuel Greengard) that detailed how some executives embrace “acceptable” failure as a part of their corporate culture. Failure characterized by repeated mistakes or negligence is never acceptable, but for many (most?) businesses, failure is never an “acceptable” option:

…sports teams often view videotapes of games and analyze breakdowns, and the military holds debriefings after every battle – [but] the business world can get shell-shocked by admitting failure. “Too often, people view failure as a sign of weakness, and they want to move on immediately,” says Richard Farson, president of Western Behavioral Sciences Institute…

Failure can be seen as a sign of weakness? Evidently, championship athletes never got the memo – most fail far more than they succeed. Still, in the corporate world, failure does seem to be construed as weakness. The problem is that the inability to evaluate and coach weakness usually only compounds the problem.

…those who lead a failed initiative lose a bit of their luster and watch their stock plummet within the organization. If the person winds up leaving the company, the institutional knowledge – what they learned from that failure – goes with him. The company may wind up using the same processes or methodology and make the same mistakes over and over again.

When a talented employee makes a mistake, isn’t that the time to capitalize? Having invested in their success, isn’t failure an opportunity to recoup some of that investment? After all, they might have learned something extremely valuable.

Great managers train their employees well, set clear expectations, and, when appropriate, provide them with the opportunity to stretch, to learn new skills, to take on new responsibilities. Then, when they fail to live up to expectations, they capitalize.

Failure is an opportunity to learn.
Failure is an opportunity to grow and mature.
Failure is an opportunity to learn what doesn’t work.
Failure is an opportunity to innovate.
Failure is an opportunity to create better plans.