Embracing failure

Redefining failure • 3 min read

#PsychFact

An Aviation study carried out by the Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) showed that, in 1959, there were 40 fatal accidents per one million aircraft departures in the US.

Within 10 years this had improved to less than two in every million departures, falling to around 0.1 per million today.

Not surprisingly, the aviation industry is renowned for having an astonishingly good safety record. This is because mistakes are learned by engaging with data taken from the black boxes of crashes.

Introduction

We all do our best to avoid failure, it hurts when we think that we haven’t performed at our peak, and that we’ve missed the mark, thinking that our losses define who we are.

We can, however, redefine our failures.

This week, we’ll look at how this approach unleashes resilience and progress in our day-to-day work.

When mistakes add value

No one wants to fail, it can hurt our morale and waste time and resources. Yet, failure is inevitable in many situations, and if managed well, can be essential for facilitating innovation and growth.

Let’s take Marcos. His recent design proposal failed to secure a major contract. Disheartened, he took the feedback on board to understand what went wrong.

When he was told the proposal was lacking focus, he concluded that he had rushed it and that the quality of the content had slipped as a result. This feedback was critical for Marcos’s growth. By using a ‘growth mindset,’ he was willing to learn and embrace challenges to create a dynamic process of change, accurately measuring his results to get a realistic idea of what needed to be worked on.

Failing intelligently and failing fast

When we fail intelligently, our learning can create substantial value. This will enable us to succeed when it really counts.

As part of this, we can focus on failing quickly, reaping important benefits, as doing so:

Saves us from investing further resources into a losing strategy
Allows us to establish causes of failure when actions and outcomes are close together in time
Enables us to quickly rule out lesser effective courses of action

We can enact intelligent failure through three sets of activities:

Launching our project with carefully planned resources and logic;
Refining our project through iteration and testing; and
Embedding what we’ve learned to improve future practice.

Key takeaways

By taking feedback from our failures, we collect data, orienting towards learning and development while turning what others might consider disappointments into opportunities to act.
By adopting a growth mindset, we push ourselves into uncomfortable areas, where we feel more afraid and less at ease. However, if we want to succeed, we have to be ready to challenge our egos and assumed limitations.
By failing quickly, we can rule out the least effective courses of action early in a project. Failing quickly allows more time to recover while avoiding the further loss of resources, such as financial investment.

Think big, act small

We always encourage you to adopt a growth mindset when reflecting on failure.

Data is key for identifying the areas you can improve upon. This data will guide you to take different approaches to help you get closer to where you want to be.

Content sources

Allianz.com, 2014, ‘How aviation safety has improved’
Fast Company, 2014, Anjali Sastry, ‘3 Steps for Harnessing Failure The Right Way’
Forbes, 2016, Julian Birkanshaw & Martine Haas, ‘Increase Your Return on Failure’
Forbes, 2018, Julie Chakraverty, ‘Why embracing and discussing failure is good for your company’
Forbes, 2021, Svetlana Whitener, 'The Value Of A Growth Mindset, And How To Develop One'
Harvard Business Review, 2011, Rita Gunther McGrath, ‘Failing by Design’
Mathew Syed, 2015, ‘Black Box Thinking: The Surprising Truth about Success,’
Ted X, Mathew Syed, 2016, ‘Why you should have your own black box’
Psychology Today, 2014, Devon Frye, ‘Why You Should Embrace Failure’