Celebrating Failure – Chicago-Style
Posted: May 29th, 2009 in Innovation
When it comes to the game of innovation, failure is not only an option, it’s an expectation. And I don’t just say that because I’m a Cub fan.
We all know that failure is part of baseball. The Cubs have only 16 post-season appearances in the last 106 years – that’s a pretty low success rate. And even the Yankees miss the post-season more often than not. But did you know that even the best, most innovative companies still fail 40% of the time?
These stats may sound discouraging, but there’s hope! There are practical, tangible things you can do to encourage risk-taking and an innovative mindset in your company whether you’re the CEO or an innovation team member.
Celebrate failure
Most companies do a great job of celebrating their successes. Credit is shared. Parties are thrown. Trinkets are handed out. Careers are accelerated. Failures are often the opposite. It’s hard to find the people who worked on a failed project and when you do, they will likely explain why the failure was someone else’s fault. These behaviors are stifling for an innovation culture because they encourage people to take small bets and achieve small wins instead of risking failure. And innovation growth goals won’t be met this way.
What if we celebrated our failures – just as we celebrate success? It may sound at best idealistic and at worst absurd. Have you even been to a failure party? Or even know someone who has? I do. In fact, I hosted one. It was a low key event compared to those high flying success parties. People were reluctant at first, but we did it anyway. As a group, we shared what we had learned about the consumer, the product, the manufacturing process, and the corporation. We recognized the effort that so many people had put into the project over the years and honored them for making the right, albeit difficult, decision to kill the project.
In the moment, I admit, I even questioned if it was the right thing to do. How could we celebrate the project that had failed on our watch? But afterwards, I knew for sure that it was the right thing because of the reactions of our team members. More people expressed their thanks and appreciation for our little failure party than ever had for a whiz-bang success party. It made them feel like the work they had done was valued and they didn’t have to hide or feel ashamed of having been part of it. This failure made us smarter for the next project. And maybe, just maybe it made people more comfortable taking a risk the next time around.
Give it some time
An innovation culture can not be grown overnight. You have to make some big trades – like clearly defining your innovation strategy, committing significant human and financial resources, and implementing a customer-driven process. And you have to play some small ball – consistently communicating management support, establishing rewards and recognition programs, creating incentives, and yes, even throwing some failure parties. And then you have to be patient. In April or May, you can’t yet tell how the season will turn out.
When it comes to innovation, the best advice just might be, wait until next year…