Why Failure is an Ally for Growth

Failure is a word that strikes fear into the hearts of many professionals. Whether it’s a missed deadline, a product that flops, or an experiment that doesn’t yield the expected results, failure can feel like a personal and professional setback.

Employees need to stop fearing failure and start working with it intelligently. Because failure is the uncomfortable truth that in this complex environments nobody knows anything. Avoiding failure means a big shut down to progress and growth. 

But this mindset of embracing failure is not something employees can nurture without the right context created by their managers and employers. 

Any company that wants to grow needs to have a process that encourages experimentation and learning from failures. Pay attention though to the wording: “learning from failures” not “learning from mistakes”. Well, companies and employees should learn from mistakes as well, but firstly should learn how to avoid the avoidable mistakes. 

Amy Edmondson, a renowned expert on organizational behavior, draws exactly this important distinction between mistakes and intelligent failures. Mistakes are errors that occur in routine operations or established processes. They often result from carelessness, lack of knowledge, or poor communication. While mistakes can and should be minimized, they offer little value beyond the immediate lesson of avoiding them in the future.

Intelligent failures, on the other hand, are the result of well-planned experiments conducted in uncertain environments. Failures occur when we test hypotheses, try new approaches, or explore new markets. They are not the product of negligence but of deliberate effort to learn and innovate. Intelligent failures are invaluable because they provide insights that can guide future actions and strategies.

The Importance of Experimentation

When companies embrace intelligent failures, they create a safe space for employees to test ideas, challenge assumptions, and push boundaries. This doesn’t mean recklessly pursuing every wild idea. Instead, it involves designing experiments with clear objectives, measurable outcomes, and a willingness to pivot based on what is learned.

Consider the case of Netflix. Before becoming the streaming giant we know today, Netflix experimented with various business models, including DVD rentals and different subscription plans. Not all of these experiments were successful, but each failure provided valuable insights that helped the company refine its strategy and ultimately disrupt the entertainment industry.

How Intelligent Failures Drive Progress

Intelligent failures are not just about learning what doesn’t work; they’re about uncovering what does. Each failure brings companies closer to solutions, innovations, and breakthroughs.

For example, Dyson’s founder, James Dyson, famously created over 5,000 prototypes before perfecting his first bagless vacuum cleaner. Each prototype that didn’t work was an intelligent failure that provided critical information, allowing him to iterate and improve. Today, Dyson is synonymous with innovation and quality, a testament to the power of learning from intelligent failures.

To fully harness the power of intelligent failures, organizations need to cultivate a culture that supports experimentation, avoids blame, and prioritizes learning. Here are some key elements of such a culture:

1. Psychological Safety: Employees must feel safe to take risks without fear of punishment or ridicule. This requires leaders to model vulnerability, admit their own failures, and encourage open dialogue.
2. Clear Goals: Experiments should have specific objectives and success criteria. This ensures that failures are purposeful and lead to actionable insights.
3. Rapid Iteration: Encourage teams to fail fast and fail small. By testing ideas on a small scale, companies can learn quickly and minimize the cost of failure.
4. Celebrating Learning: Instead of focusing solely on successes, celebrate the lessons learned from failures. Recognize and reward employees who take calculated risks and share their insights.
5. No Blame Culture: Shift the focus from assigning blame to understanding what went wrong and why. This fosters collaboration and continuous improvement.