Why Innovation Success Needs Failure

November 8, 2013 By IdeaConnection

Edison_bulbMany organisations have a very uneasy relationship with failure. It simply isn’t acceptable.  Employees from the CEO down are scared of the word and its consequences, so much so that conservatism rules the day.  In such an environment disruptive innovations are choked off long before an original thought is given room to breathe.

In a post on the Ventureburn website titled ‘Failure isn’t just good, it allows for extraordinary innovation’ Mbali Ndandani says, “When organisations don’t allow their employees to fail, they are paying lip service to innovation. It really is that simple.”

Ndandani goes on to point out the famous example of Thomas Edison’s 1, 093 failures before he developed his version of the light bulb.  She wonders aloud whether organisations would allow their employees to fail so many times.

Problems in the Classroom

Part of the problem she says lies with the education systems in most countries that instill fear of failure from the outset.  Rather than children being allowed to fail and learning how to correct their mistakes or developing workarounds, they are encouraged to soak up what the teacher says and regurgitate that at exam time.

Children are so scared of making mistakes, and this mindset sticks with them into their adult years.  By the time they are employed by an organisation any notion of engaging in a risky creative exercise is given a wide berth.

Solutions

Ndandani provides a number of ways that companies can work with failure.  This isn’t a free pass to make silly and reckless mistakes, it is “defining within an organisation’s specific context what constitutes smart failure.”  By this she means creating acceptable boundaries within which failure is tolerated.

To read more about how organisations can profit from failure you can read her article here.


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