\u200bThough \u201cfailure is not an option\u201d is certainly a fitting phrase for a major space mission like Apollo 13, the everyday workplace should be less prone to believing those words, and instead welcome confessions like \u201cHouston, we have a problem.\u201d After all, some of the best professional breakthroughs have come about from failures\u2014just look at Michael Jordan\u2019s and Steve Jobs\u2019 careers. \u201cIt turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that ever happened to me\u2026it freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life,\u201d Jobs shared in his 2005 Stanford commencement address. And Jordan once said, \u201cTwenty-six times I\u2019ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I\u2019ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Failure is essential to an organization\u2019s success. Not only is a failure-safe environment good for employee morale, but it can also foster new levels of creativity in the workplace and help build compassion, character, and resilience.<\/a> It\u2019s also clear that we cannot have success without some degree of failure. As Soichiro Honda, founder of Honda, once said, \u201cSuccess represents the 1 percent of your work which results from the 99 percent that is called failure.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite the many well-documented benefits of failure<\/a>, the need to succeed can create an immense amount of pressure in the workplace, where performance is constantly being evaluated and the greater labor market outside of office walls remains fragile. And in the middle of a pandemic, as many people are struggling<\/a> and feeling especially exposed and vulnerable, the added pressure to stay in control and prevent failure can be overwhelming, and even toxic. The move, then, to create a psychologically safe workplace\u2014one in which employees feel safe to take risks, be vulnerable, and yes, fail\u2014is long overdue.<\/p>\n The challenge for leaders is to make employees feel safe in the face of failure. The ability to fail\u2014in fact, the encouragement to fail\u2014must start at the top.<\/p>\n Here are five ways leaders can cultivate a work environment that allows for failure and challenges employees to take risks and explore new ideas.<\/p>\n Employees need to know that there\u2019s a built-in safety net for their failures. By making your failures, whether big or small, widely and regularly known, you put a face to the often-scary idea of failure, humanize yourself, and built trust with employees. Trust is essential in any healthy relationship, and employees must trust that you mean what you say. If you say failure is OK, you must reflect that in your actions. Be authentic with those around you, and they\u2019ll learn to trust you and take much-needed risks to make the organization even better. As Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull said<\/a>, \u201cIf we as leaders can talk about our mistakes and our part in them, then we make it safe for others.\u201d He believes it\u2019s important not to ignore or hide from failures, but to be open about meltdowns inside Pixar, because they teach something important. \u201cWe must think of the cost of failure as an investment in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Make yourself available for honest conversations and, in addition, be candid in the way you communicate with others in the organization. Take the idea of the \u201copen door policy\u201d a step further:<\/p>\n Go out of your way to proactively talk with employees at all levels about how things are going with projects or in their day-to-day activities. Find out where they may need help, and connect them to the right resources. Share your own advice and experiences in a non-judgmental way. It\u2019s important to create a shared understanding<\/a> of why everyone\u2019s input matters, according to Amy Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School. Be appreciative of their input, even if it\u2019s not what you want to hear. You may consider saying, \u201cThanks for that clear line of sight\u201d or asking in response to a stated challenge, \u201cWhat can we do to help you out?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Schedule virtual \u201copen door sessions\u201d where you\u2019re available for questions and on-the-spot problem-solving, and break the ice first by talking about a recent failure or situation you\u2019ve been struggling with. Invite employees to share their own situations and encourage others on the call to chime in with suggestions on how to clear obstacles they\u2019re facing. Employees who feel psychologically safe<\/a> \u201care more interested in learning, excellence, and genuinely connecting with others than in looking good,\u201d said Edmondson.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Take a cue from the agile and improv worlds<\/a>, in which clear communication, continuous collaboration and feedback, adaptability, and an abundance of learning and growth opportunities are the norm. An agile leadership style can provide clear direction in times of uncertainty, while still encouraging employees to \u201cfail fast\u201d and feel safe trying new things. Show employees that the \u201copen door\u201d truly is always open by asking them for their ideas, all the time. Be sure employees understand that you\u2019re not testing them. Get employees involved in the decision-making process of bringing ideas to fruition, and along the way work together to determine ideas thatwon\u2019t<\/i>work.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n Don\u2019t just accept failure in the workplace\u2014celebrate it. Even if it feels a bit over the top at first, it takes time to build trust and make employees feel both safe and supported enough to venture away from their comfort zones and try new ways of thinking and working. Keep in mind that some of the patterns employees rely on have been built up over months and years. It can take some time to peel away the layers, but the rewards are well worth it. When James Quincey took over as the CEO of Coca Cola Co. in May 2017, he said<\/a>, \u201cIf we\u2019re not making mistakes, we\u2019re not trying hard enough.\u201d He encouraged employees to get past the fear of failure that had plagued the company since the \u201cNew Coke\u201d disaster many years earlier.<\/p>\n Remind those from top leadership all the way down to make space for employees to try new things, rather than micromanaging them. Encourage them to celebrate the failures that occur in their own teams, rather than engaging in a \u201ccommand and control\u201d<\/a> style of leading, which often stokes division and fear and kills idea-sharing and innovation. These types of leaders often act this way because they don\u2019t feel psychologically safe, and in turn they don\u2019t create a safe space for the teams under them. Successful and empowering leaders, however, create a safety net for their employees and help them be their best selves.<\/p>\n Help your team find opportunities in the things that don\u2019t go according to plan. Ask them to share \u201cfailures of the week,\u201d and positively recognize those who identify and share approaches that aren\u2019t working. Find ways to share them across the company in a positive and celebratory way that creates a domino effect of failure sharing across the organization.<\/p>\n Making employees feel psychologically safe in times of \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d is one thing; making them feel safe in times of organizational change is quite another. If your organization is experiencing layoffs, re-organizational shake-ups, or uncertainty in the face of looming changes, how and when you manage those changes can make all the difference. Too often, employees are ignored and don\u2019t know what\u2019s happening until rumors have swirled, stress and anxiety is at an all-time high, and trust is irreparably broken. By that point, people are afraid to say or do much of anything to draw attention to themselves\u2014and failing is the last thing they feel comfortable doing.<\/p>\n By creating a safe place to work through your everyday words and actions, employees will feel more prepared when changes do <\/i>come. Instead of reacting from a place of fear, they\u2019ll be more likely to respond from a place of trust. So, be open about what you know and when you know it, and be honest about what you don\u2019t. Hold yourself accountable for keeping employees informed on an ongoing basis, even if that means saying, \u201cI don\u2019t know the answer to that right now, but I\u2019ll update you as soon as I do.\u201d<\/p>\n As much as possible, enable employees to continue to collaborate and take professional risks to move the organization forward, and to speak up and be honest about their ideas and opinions. Reward \u201ctruth telling,\u201d particularly in times of flux<\/a>, to give employees the power to help fix what\u2019s broken and elevate the organization in new ways.<\/p>\n Leaders need to feel confident to lead through change, too\u2014particularly in times when their leadership skills are tested most. Robustly support leaders and managers, so that they in turn are able to better support their teams. Share what to expect from employees in times of change, and how to navigate roadblocks they may encounter. Be clear that if something goes wrong, you\u2019re available to help. Your efforts will trickle down throughout the company and help to foster a failure-safe culture, even in times of change.<\/p>\n Creating a workplace where failure is accepted and encouraged is half the battle; incorporating learnings from those failures to create future success is the other half.<\/p>\n Have built-in checkpoints that serve as \u201csafety nets\u201d throughout a project (as agile teams have) to review what\u2019s working, what\u2019s not, get additional resources, and make any needed tweaks to help manage the outcome. Discuss predetermined project milestones<\/a> to measure how on-point things are\u2014or whether they\u2019re veering off course.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n After a project is finished, gather the team for post-project reviews to get feedback and perspectives from each team member to find out where they struggled or ran into roadblocks, what went well, and what lessons were learned. Reflecting and adapting for the next project will help the team avoid repeating the same mistakes, and putting everyone\u2019s heads together in one place can lead to idea breakthroughs and increased trust and morale among colleagues.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Create a process around failed ideas<\/a> that gives employees a safe space to fail while also learning from failed ideas what not <\/i>to do in the future. Consider changing KPIs to reward risk and failure; to truly make failure part of the culture, entrepreneur Annabel Acton says that employees must actively be measured against it. One way do to this is to hold employees accountable for trying one new approach to one of their tasks each quarter (bonus if it feels intimidating and unknown). Make sure that shared lessons and learnings as a team are a fixture of the process.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Test and learn. Map out what went wrong, identify the weak points<\/a> in your process, and create a formalized checklist or system to prevent the same thing from happening again.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n1. Be Vocal About Failing First<\/h2>\n
2. Have an Open Door Policy (and Mean It)<\/h2>\n
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Check in frequently.<\/h3>\n
Put problem-solving on the calendar.<\/h3>\n
Empower your employees.<\/h3>\n
3. Celebrate Failures<\/h2>\n
4. Be Transparent in Times of Change<\/h2>\n
5. Future-Proof Your Failures<\/h2>\n
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Getting Great at Failing<\/h2>\n