If You Fail You Are Close To Success

t would be a mistake to try to avoid all mistakes. Indeed, it would be a colossal blunder to attempt doing things right the first time, every time. In todays light speed economy, (“new” economy and “old” economy) if you don’t fall on your face both regularly and painfully, you are likely to end up dead instead. The only people not making mistakes are ones playing their game without risk and without novelty – and I might add – without progress. If your company cannot accommodate, even reward, failure – in the long run, you cannot succeed.

There are many famous failed computers, including Apple’s Lisa and Newton or the Palm Pilot’s predecessor, Zoomer – evidence that failures breed innovations rather than stifling them. Not all business failures are so glorious. 65 out 100 business startups vanish without a trace within five years and 90% are gone within ten years. But we need these failures – without them there would no companies to survive.

If you are in the surgery business or fly airplanes for a living, you may not want to make any mistakes. But for the rest of us – especially if you are in a technology business – doing things wrong is prerequisite to doing things right. As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”

In the spirit of failing quickly, here are a few ideas and tips for you to try out. Some will work for you. Others will not. Try and fail. Don’t penalize mistakes, encourage them. How about rewarding them? Create a bonus for the most brilliant (or most flagrant) mistake of the month. Put risk-taking mistake-makers’ faces on your website or in your newsletter. Many companies say they encourage mistakes, but really intimidate and punish the mistake-makers. As soon as you begin to do that you foster a better-safe-than-sorry attitude. Instead, put your money where your mouth is.

What about having a regular meeting dissecting the mistakes-of-the-month, trying to learn their lessons. Train people to savor their mistakes, and understand the strange paths which led them astray.

Use the concept of a “breakdown.” When your car breaks down, do you blame the driver, or do you just fix the problem? When a project or a process is veering off course, treat it like a breakdown. Rather than spending time deciding who did what wrong, do this: restate where you are, where you want to go and figure out what will get you back on track. During the Iran Contra Scandal, President Reagan intoned, “Mistakes were made.” There was no admission of guilt. No fixing of blame. Perhaps we can learn from this brilliant locution.

Create a company of learners with a formal debriefing policy. Without one, learning from mistakes is just one more accident. Debrief everything – good, bad or indifferent. Use the four-stage catechism of the learning organization: What worked? What didn’t work? What was missing? What do we do next?

Be A Leader

3 comments

1 Amity { 09.10.09 at 4:43 pm }

As far as mistakes are concerned, I always log every step I take during experimentation. This way I can logically explain what I was doing, what went wrong, why it went wrong, how I can correct it next time and what I learnt in the process.

2 Kunle Akinbola { 05.05.10 at 6:06 am }

This had been my weakness before the first time I read something on the relevance of mistakes. Back then, I even deliberately avoid competing before I did not want to be defeated. Thank God for write-up of this nature.

3 Rajasekaran { 04.17.11 at 7:40 am }

I too agree that one who does not make mistakes are the one who does nothing. But, it is good for a fianacial services company to take this approach, risking the trust required to run business.

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