The Error of Eliminating Error
By Peter LloydManagers can improve the creative performance of their creative people by the way they respond to failure. Designers, writers, inventors, or anyone charged with coming up with creative product need to know that it's okay to mess up.
We have little trouble applauding creative achievement. The more difficult management challenge is applauding failure.
Creative people understand that they are being evaluated or even worse, measured, all the time. They know that success can mean a chance to work on more interesting and challenging projects, a shot at a promotion, more money, and so on. Rewarding success encourages creative excellence. Effectively dealing with disaster takes a great creative leader.
Silence in the face of failure or just letting mistakes slide is not good enough. Creative people know that failure usually brings the opposite of what follows success. This creates performance anxiety or Evaluation Apprehension. They know that their reputation and future opportunities depend on how hot management and their peers think they are. A low opinion leads to disappointment and feelings of inadequacy, which can choke creative output, because creativity thrives on confidence.
But if managers respond to failures as lessons in such a way that the creative's esteem is bolstered, not compromised, then the lessons learned are incorporated rather than forgotten.
Where schools eliminate the fear of asking so-called stupid questions, students ask more so-called stupid questions and learn more. Successful sales people understand that losing a sale means getting closer to "Yes." Every scientist knows that every failed experiment comes loaded with lessons. No need to review the inventions born of error. It's enough to remember that in order to enjoy serendipitous invention, creative leaders have to be willing to let their people "get it wrong" on the way to "getting it right."
A creative manager's job, then, boils down to making it safe for their creative people to make mistakes and even fail.
In the book, Think Naked, Marco Marsan and I established "Happy Place" as the first naked thinking principle. That is, creating an environment in which it's fun to play. Kids are more creative, because it's assumed that they have permission to experiment and go where their instincts lead them. Too bad much of formal education teaches them the opposite.
Here are a couple more books that champion the making of mistakes:
Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation Richard Farson
Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes John C. Maxwell
Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.