When we are born, we don’t know how to talk, we don’t know how to walk, and we don’t even know how to move our bodies. Through experimentation, through a process of trial and error, we learn to function in the world around us. At first, we simply make clumsy movements that we hit ourselves with unintentionally. Instead of falling apart, we keep trying, learning about our own body and assimilate so that we gradually perfect our movements until we are able to crawl, walk and run.
Experimenting is part of life and failure is an inevitable consequence of this experimentation; it is not a question of if something will fail, but when it will fail and learn from the failure to try again.
Just like people, organizations and companies must also experiment, try new things, innovate in their products and processes, and they will surely go wrong many times and examples can be found everywhere https://www.braineet.com/blog/innovation-failures. But you have to keep trying, because experimenting can lead to failure, but not experimenting ensures failure in the long run. Imagine what the world would be like if when we learn to walk, after the first fall we had not tried again.
Although failure is inherent in our lives from the moment we are born, the fact is that both individuals and companies are reluctant to talk about our failed stories and this prevents us from learning from them and from growing. The saying goes that “you learn from your mistakes” and it is true that you rarely succeed with the first attempt, but rather it usually takes several more. But what is often lacking is the courage to try because the corresponding conditions that promote experimentation and innovation are also lacking.
A culture of innovation based on failure is important for testing ideas that may not seem very likely at first, but are still feasible. Failure is necessary to create the improbable: if you don’t try something improbable, it will never come true. Taking risks, breaking the rules and breaking new ground leads to not always achieving goals. As Elon Musk once said:
“Failure is an option here. If things are not failing you are not innovating.”
Elon Musk
To work on a culture of failure in organizations is to create the necessary workflows that allow employees to fail and learn from failed attempts; and this requires a special kind of leadership. A leadership that encourages unconventional thinking, that fosters diversity and freedom of expression, that encourages trying and creates a space free of accusations in case of failure and that faces failure with a constructive and learning process. This leadership must also provide safety nets to prevent failure from discouraging the person or reprimanding him or her. We are talking about a leadership of freedom to try and protection in the face of failure; in the same way that when a child begins to walk, his parents encourage him to do so, but if he falls, they will be there to pick him up and encourage him to try again.
If we are too afraid to try something new, we may never reach our potential, we must turn our failures into lessons and be able to pivot our actions to do it differently.
A culture of failure is especially useful for teams/organizations working with complex distributed systems and diverse staff, so that there is no fear of trying and learning and thus achieving the full potential of everyone. So, if failure is an option, you offer the chance to go for what you really want, no matter how huge or unprecedented the idea is. And if it doesn’t work, you pivot and try again.
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