Failure is an unavoidable fact of life. This doesn’t make the fear of failure any less debilitating and to some people, the very thought of it can paralyse them into inaction, says Robert Ordever. But should failure really be feared?
Despite what many are led to believe, failure in business is necessary to establish that something isn’t right for your company. You can then move on and eventually find something that works. Some of today’s greatest ideas will have been considered by someone at some point to have been failures, and it is only thanks to these ‘failures’ that today’s society is quite so advanced. But how can businesses overcome fear of failure and even ‘permit it’ to deliver innovative change?
The psychology around failure
First, it’s important to understand that fear of failure is a psychological trait. Few would admit to being unaffected by a lack of success because after all, failure can directly affect a person’s self-esteem and self-worth.
From an early age, many will have been taught that failure is bad and so unsurprisingly, they do everything in their power to avoid it. They may decide not to enter a competition because of the fear of losing or keep their expectations low to avoid disappointment. Some parents may even discourage their children from joining-in activities they think they won’t excel at to avoid dealing with the traumatic aftermath.
And so by holding-on to a fear of failure, people behave in ways that limit their achievements and future likelihood of success. Their world becomes predictable, uninspiring and routine. When this is applied to business, the impacts can be considerable.
How businesses are set-up to demonise failure
A fear of failure can permeate through businesses, especially those with an ‘old school’ workplace culture in which the leadership team is trusted to make the decisions, the staff are expected to implement these decisions and the measure of success boils down to avoiding failure. In workplaces such as these, staff aren’t hired to be innovative and creative but to follow instructions and if they do it ‘wrong’ they’ll either be disciplined or fired.
In ‘old school’ business environments in which failure is to be avoided at all costs, staff become risk averse. After all, the easiest way to survive is to avoid coming-up with anything new that may ‘rock the boat’. It’s also typical for change to happen slowly as the fear of making the wrong decision makes approval processes long and arduous.
It is, however, perfectly possible to alter how we view failure, turning what we have learnt ‘on its head’ to make failure into a positive thing. By doing this, businesses can become agile innovators and truly begin to thrive.
Encouraging a culture of innovation in which failure isn’t an issue.
Failing isn’t bad for business, it just leads to a different outcome. In order to develop any successful product or service, it’s important to try lots of different ideas to get to the end result, learning from the failures along the way. For instance, despite it’s phenomenal success, Apple hasn’t always got it right, such as with its early hand-held computer, The Newton, which was swiftly ‘killed off’ by Steve Jobs.
Permitting failure is therefore absolutely key for creating a culture of innovation, although, it’s not good enough to simply tell staff “it’s okay to fail”. The whole business must be set-up to encourage new idea generation and experimentation.
Businesses that are truly innovating and are willing to ‘break new ground’ are those which empower their people, giving them the freedom to come up with new ideas. In such an environment, the leader is not the one in charge, coming-up with new ways of doing things, but is instead nurturing and encouraging innovation within their teams. By empowering those people closest to the work, the business will get the most immediate results and will be able to effect change quickly, keeping pace with the marketplace.
Innovating organisations also recognise and reward those that experiment with new ways of doing things so that they are reaffirming to the workforce the importance of idea generation. And when staff fail, it’s even more important to recognise the effort they put into the idea so that failure is seen as acceptable and a ‘positive’ part of the journey. In fact, many businesses don’t use the word “failure” when things don’t work out as planned but talk about “experimenting” instead. This careful use of language helps to alter the whole psychology around ‘failure’.
Top tips on creating an innovation culture
It can be easier said than done to create a workplace which permits failure. The following tips will help businesses to achieve this by carefully nurturing their innovation culture.
1 Ensure your culture and leadership style is full of humility – Traditionally, leaders have relied upon their power, or ‘positional authority’, to make things happen. Typical attributes include an authoritarian approach, leading by decree and imposing change. However, such an approach stifles creativity and innovation. Those leaders who exercise humility and not ‘positional authority’ are the ones who can truly make things happen and will have a more engaged, collaborative and productive workforce
2 Trust the people closest to the work and empower them – This is key because if there isn’t mutual trust between manager and employee and if staff aren’t empowered and given a sense of ownership over what they do, innovation will be stifled. Worryingly, research from The OC Tanner Institute’s study The Six Essential Aspects of Workplace Culture to Focus on Today (2017) found that only 56% of employees say their manager knows how to share responsibility with them and their team members. In addition, more than 1 in 4 employees do not trust their direct manager, revealing that there is still a long way to go if organisations are to enable a culture of innovation.
3 Re-position the company’s approach to failure – Instead of talking about failures, talk about ‘experiments’ or ‘idea testing’ and then use every ‘experiment’ as a learning curve for the next idea.
4 Recognise effort – The act of appreciating others, otherwise known as ‘giving recognition’ is all too often ignored. In fact, when people are effectively appreciated and recognised at work, they feel an increase in value which leads to greater drive and determination, better work relationships, stronger connections to their organisations and increased productivity.
Ensuring that all recognition is ‘values-based’ leads to profound results because by recognising the ‘right’ behaviours, this encourages those behaviours to be repeated. It’s therefore important to show appreciation when people demonstrate innovation. For instance they may suggest a new way of working or improving an existing process. And the ‘recognition’ must be done right, which means in a timely manner, a genuine way and ideally, in a public forum, so that the person’s peers are clear on how they, too, should be behaving.
4 Reward results – As well as showing appreciation, when an idea makes a difference, ensure staff are rewarded for it. This could be in the form of ‘points’ towards a gift, an extra day’s holiday or a team meal. By showing staff how much their ideas are truly valued and rewarded, an innovation culture will soon become embedded.
Talking from experience – a case study on OC Tanner’s innovation-led culture
It may be interesting to learn that OC Tanner used to be a top-down, controlling and authoritarian organisation. However 25 years’ ago, the decision was taken to move towards a leaner, more team-based and empowering environment. The company worked hard to empower the people on the ‘front line’, permitting them to seek ways to improve how things are done. This took a lot of training, practice and development that was supported by a strong cultural strategy (based on the Shingo model) which values humble leadership and respect for others. Managers learnt to trust their people to make the right decisions and OC Tanner’s workforce were given the management team’s permission to make decisions, try new things and improve processes. With this in mind, ‘failure’ was repositioned so that it wasn’t frowned upon but instead seen as bringing learning and pushing the company onto the next idea.
OC Tanner’s people are also showered with appreciation for the effort they put in, helping to reinforce the ‘right’ behaviours, which include experimenting and idea generation. When efforts get results, recognition and reward are key.
OC Tanner’s approach means that its workforce makes decisions and tries new things on a daily basis, creating a lean and agile organisation. The results have been profound – efficiency has tripled and manufacturing lead time has reduced from 26 days to just 20 minutes.
A final word
Those organisations that don’t welcome new ideas and experimentation with an understanding that failure might happen, will simply stand still. It’s therefore key for organisations to encourage an innovation culture in which new ideas are championed and failure isn’t scorned. Businesses that ignore this advice this will simply be left behind.
Robert Ordever is Managing Director of O.C. Tanner Europe
