Failing is an art too!
REWARDING success has been an age-old practice. It's a motivator that boosts both performance and productivity of individuals. At work, however, the policies and practices have been changing and accepting failures has become, well, acceptable - provided they are intelligent failures!
Generating workable new ideas is difficult if risk taking is not encouraged. Many managers are now fine-tuning their intrinsic leadership qualities and providing greater scope for their subordinates to make mistakes but at the same time, ensure that they learn from their mistakes. For example, Monsanto's Robert Shapiro was determined to change his employees' approach to failure because it hindered the creativity that kept his business going. According to him, a meticulously planned effort that did not pay off well was desirable, not merely excusable.
While success and failure can be approached in similar ways, intelligence lies in examining the cause behind both. You should be able to answer pertinent questions such as:
-Is success a result of an accidental effort or meticulous effort?
-Has your effort helped you move closer to your goals?
Viewing success and failure as two sides of an effort is difficult in the initial stages. Encouraging failure necessitates higher supervision, control checks and sound practices. It is also equally essential to identify the failure types - those that can be excused and those that result from carelessness
An individual must be able to effectively differentiate between such failures for the simple reason that it:
- Provides an environment to yield productive mistakes
- Promotes productive mistakes to foster effective learning
Adopting intelligent failures
The following tips come handy in helping you adopt intelligent failures.
Interact- The best approach to adopt failures is to show interest in the task at hand instead of merely evaluating your efforts. We must remember that great people have come to be known as great because they always focus on lessons learnt from an experiment and the steps to be taken to practise those lessons. For example, Thomas Edison, Watson and Kettering were famous for holding animated discussions about ideas and not dumping them as junk.
Analyse- Innovation is hastened with proper analysis rather than evaluation. Praising and penalising are words of a bygone era. Praising can actually de-motivate people because they come to understand that others' expectations of them are too high and it is difficult to live up to them. On the other hand, people refrain from sharing ideas when there is a threat of criticism.
Admit mistakes- As General Motors' CEO, Kettering put it; "It's not a disgrace to fail. You must analyse each failure to find its cause... you must learn how to fail intelligently. Failing is one of the greatest arts in the world. One fails forward towards success." Admitting mistakes will help you emerge as self-confident. People identify easily with those who reveal their errors.
Say `yes'- Be very creative in coming up with ideas. Participate in active discussions. Gather and evaluate ideas. Identify what you stand to lose or gain by adopting or not adopting an idea. Weigh the pros and cons of each idea and take the best step forward.
In essence...
The approach should not be in terms of measures of success or failure but in terms of how much new learning has taken place and the experience gained through making mistakes. As they say, failures are the stepping-stones to success!
BINDU MADHAVI
faqs@cnkonline.com
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