When did you fail last time? Did you get frustrated and judged yourself over and over? Or did you stop and reflect to learn from it and grow as an individual? Of course, we all want the second answer to be true. But that is unfortunately hardly ever the case when things go wrong. Instead we get angry with ourselves, we worry about who will discover our failure, how we will explain it and hopefully focus on how to put things right again.
A question that keeps me busy is “What is it that makes us so afraid to fail?”. Psychological theories say that most of us are driven by the fear. Fear of being judged by others and in the long run that we are afraid to not belong by not bringing value to the group. So instead of taking a risk we take the safe way and stay put.
In theory we all know the importance of testing and trying to be able to learn, just like our children when they learn to walk. If a child would not get up after each failure, they would never learn to walk and then never learn to run etc. Once upon a time it was a necessary capability to survive when you encountered danger.
In our consulting and coaching business, we often meet companies who wants to change and develop a more innovative culture. They see the business necessity from a market as well from an economic perspective. But they meet major challenges in changing the behaviour of the many co-workers.
Museum of Failures
The Museum of Failures www.museumoffailure.com is a collection of failures from around the world and arranges exhibitions on different locations. As they put on their website “Innovation and progress require an acceptance of failure. The museum aims to stimulate productive discussion about failure and inspire us to take meaningful risks”. The museum is curated by Dr. Samuel West, licensed psychologist, PhD in Organizational Psychology.
Throughout history there are numerous examples of mistakes becoming successes. My favourite is the story of Post-its, a product we all take for granted and that is absolutely genius. But it started as a mistake. In 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M in the United States, was attempting to develop a super-strong adhesive. Instead, he accidentally created a “low-tack”, reusable adhesive and it was a failure. In 1974 Art Fry came up with the idea to use this mistake and took the reusable adhesive to bookmark his hymnbook and continued to develop the product. It took another five years and it became a success for 3M. Even the well-known yellow colour was a mistake as that was the only available colour for scrap paper in the lab next door (Source: Wikipedia).
Test and learn mindset
There is no more time for the long project plans and slow decision processes by the few. By now we all agree that it is necessary to become more innovative in our ways of working and in our ways to do business development to survive. The development of new products and services also needs to go faster. And that means that more employees need to take part in developing the business and more risks of failure needs to be accepted.
Several years ago, the founder of IKEA Ingvar Kamprad, launched The Biggest Mistake Awards to encourage a culture of innovation and to dare to test and learn for the many co-workers. Years later it has still not really taken off around the world as it was hoped for. It is just one of many examples how challenging it is to change a company culture especially in multi international companies.
Companies tell their employees that they want a ‘test and learn mindset’ and managers encourage their co-workers to ‘think out of the box’. But still…. most do everything in their power to avoid failing, to make sure they prepared everything. We double check and control so nothing can go wrong, or we stay within what we know and can predict to avoid any risk at all.
What is then needed to change a behaviour and open for more creative thinking, speaking up and taking risks? According to us it is all about leadership and the role models showing the way in what behaviour is needed.
Our inner saboteur
Most individuals are aware of the importance to dare to take risks to break free from our individual comfort zone to develop and grow as human beings and professionals. The fear of making mistakes and to fail is though so powerful that it limits us in our ability to stretch ourselves and use our full potential.
Research within psychology and neuroscience confirms that we have from young age learned certain behaviours and rules that have protected us growing up. We have heard from teachers, parents and friends the do’s and the don’ts that have been necessary to protect us both physically and emotionally. Think about not putting your hand on the hot stove or be careful about climbing too high in the tree as you might hurt yourself falling. The problem is that as adults they do not help us as grownups, instead they hinder us.
This inner ’voice’, often called ‘the saboteur’ within coaching, protect us from changing. It wants to stay in our comfort zone to avoid danger. When faced with challenges, stress or uncomfortable situations, our saboteurs are activated, and we fall into old, negative, self-sabotaging behaviours. Shirzad Chamine, founder and CEO of Positive Intelligence, explains his theory about one especially strong saboteur that he calls ‘the inner Judge’. This saboteur we all have, in different degrees, and it constantly judges ourselves, others and the circumstances. This is an enormously powerful mindset that really can be limiting in a person’s life.
It is possible to work on decreasing the power of the Judge and other saboteurs. The first step is to acknowledge when the saboteur is active and consciously switch into a more positive reaction. If you are curious read more on www.positiveintelligence.com.
Leadership is the key
So, what is the key to create an innovative and dare to test and try culture within a company? Well, in the end it all comes down to good and genuine leadership. It is about the capability to understanding human behaviour and to show the way through your own behaviour. As you can imagine management by fear does not work in this situation, neither does micromanagement or other kind of controlling behaviours.
For an individual to dare to change or even consider doing something outside their comfort zone they need to feel safe. To feel safe to express themselves freely and try new ways without being judged or criticized. Instead you as a leader need to be the first to show that you take risk, dare to fail, and learn and try again.
To be a strong leader you as anyone else need to be aware of your own inner judge and the way you judge others. Leaders who can create a safe space for their team members, where there is room for thinking out of the box and where colleagues support each other, can create a strong creative culture. Often it is micromanagement, fear of performance, competition between team members and insecurity that hinders an innovative culture.
The more managers are driven by feeling judged or judging themselves, others and circumstances the more limited is the space for innovation and a test and learn culture. In other words, it start from the top, where the top management team need to start to treat their managers in the way they want the many co-workers to be treated.
How innovative and creative is your company culture?
What about a short self reflection about yourself and your company? How well does your company encourage to make and learn from mistakes? What part of your culture and values encourages your co-workers to test and try? How genuine is your leadership culture and who are the good examples you can build on?
If you want to promote a leadership style that diminishes micromanagement and instead inspires and encourages co-workers to try to see what would be possible you should start with yourself and your closest team. Then review how the competence is when it comes to simple risk assessments to differentiate better and give space to where creativity would not be a high risk. Then it is about supporting your leaders to manage their inner judges and build their security to create that innovative and creative culture you need.
Did you get curious and want to talk further about some parts please connect with us on nyfiken@loscopo.se and visit our website: www.loscopo.se
Now get out there and take some risks and make sure you fail, it can be very liberating!
