Worklab

How do Best Teams Use Failure to Succeed

• Failures are inevitable during uncertainty. But, not all failures are alike. Great teams distinguish between intelligent failures—well-designed experiments with uncertain outcomes—and preventable failures that stem from carelessness, inattention, or incompetence. A third kind – complex failures – are the largely-preventable results of complex interactions. These must be anticipated and either prevented or mitigated.
• Failures are the source of crucial organizational learning: Organizations that survive and thrive in uncertainty treat failures and near-misses as valuable data rather than career-damaging events.
• Teams that learn quickly from failures can accelerate innovation and adaptation.
• Teams cannot learn from failure unless people feel safe reporting errors, acknowledging mistakes, and discussing near-misses. Fear drives cover-ups, not learning.
• The most innovative teams distinguish between failures that are essential to progress (experimentation, trying new approaches, pushing boundaries) and those that are never acceptable (cutting corners, ignoring safety, knowingly delivering poor quality).
• When team leaders acknowledge their own mistakes and discuss what they learned, they communicate that failure is a normal part of challenging work.