How Failure Breeds Success
BusinessWeek magazine is currently running a cover article on the power of failure. Back in the day -- not so long ago -- business focus was on operational efficiencies, cost savings and getting customers to buy what was being sold. The day has changed, and with the emergence of the customer as king, the strategic differentiator has changed. The old measures of success, beaten into employees in the Jack Welch school of Six Sigma, are now being complimented by a softer approach -- one that favours a culture of risk taking, learning and innovation.
To have employees embrace this shift however, isn't going to be easy. The instinct is not to step out of line. Risk taking, which leads to learning and innovation comes with failures. Failures lead to pink slips. Hence the conservative approach, which delivers no innovation and rewards mediocrity. To innovate, companies have to learn to manage failures intelligently. First is to create a culture where risk taking is championed. Not an easy task. Experimentation that lead to failure isn't something that is rewarded today. Failure is one thing, but the consequences can be quite harsh. Second, is to manage risks well. Failures should come early and fast. Lastly, is learn from failures. Failures that come early in the development process can lead to quick learnings that could feed an iterative process to innovate. Take risks early, make mistakes, learn from them, then feed the intelligence gained from the failure back into the development process and so on.
This isn't an easy thing to accomplish. The biggest obstacle is culture -- not something that gets changed overnight.
Related reading:
To have employees embrace this shift however, isn't going to be easy. The instinct is not to step out of line. Risk taking, which leads to learning and innovation comes with failures. Failures lead to pink slips. Hence the conservative approach, which delivers no innovation and rewards mediocrity. To innovate, companies have to learn to manage failures intelligently. First is to create a culture where risk taking is championed. Not an easy task. Experimentation that lead to failure isn't something that is rewarded today. Failure is one thing, but the consequences can be quite harsh. Second, is to manage risks well. Failures should come early and fast. Lastly, is learn from failures. Failures that come early in the development process can lead to quick learnings that could feed an iterative process to innovate. Take risks early, make mistakes, learn from them, then feed the intelligence gained from the failure back into the development process and so on.
This isn't an easy thing to accomplish. The biggest obstacle is culture -- not something that gets changed overnight.
Related reading:
- So Much Fanfare, So Few Hits -- in the same issue of BusinessWeek is this article on Google, which knocks the company for its many new product releases that don't gain traction. By Google's own admission however, they expect that most of their products will fail -- hence the fast release cycle. Those that gain traction though, should be huge money makers.
- Fear of Feedback [PDF] -- a HBR article that offers advice on how to obtain constructive feedback on your performance.
- Maneuver Warfare: Can Modern Military Strategy Lead You to Victory? [PDF] -- a HBR article on how to embrace uncertainty and use it to your advantage.
- Building Breakthrough Businesses Within Established Organizations [PDF] -- a HBR article on the power of experimentation to fuel long term growth.
- Organizational DNA for Strategic Innovation [PDF] -- a California Management Review article on the value of strategic experimentation.
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