In Continuous Improvement (and lots of other places), we talk about failure a lot. We talk about failing fast, failing often, failing forward, failing, failing, failing. We do not talk about why, what happens, or what to do when we or those around us fail to recognize that a failure has occurred. As with the picture above, there’s an assumption that just because failure is obvious from an outside perspective, it’s acknowledged by one responsible for the failure.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against these ideas about failure, and I understand that they’ve come about due to a shared perspective in much of society that failing is bad and simply should not be done. I agree that the reality is that we are all imperfect humans who fail all the time!
Unfortunately, the value in all of these modes of failing is completely lost when we are unable – for whatever reason – to acknowledge that there has, in fact been a failure. You might be thinking, “That is crazy! Who doesn’t recognize when they’ve failed?!” The answer is…a lot of people.
Recognizing failure is actually harder to do than allowing yourself to fail. I have witnessed many brilliant entrepreneurs fall prey to this – and in many cases, the inability to recognize the failure results in decisions that cost the business in a variety of ways. People leaving, financial straits, toxic cultures – all of these are results of not acknowledging a failure. As you can imagine, the more you press forward ignoring the failure, the more failures occur as a result. What’s worse is that they compound on each other. You cannot outrun ignored failure. It will catch up to you. It will be more painful than it needs to be.
To illustrate this, let’s take a case study. An entrepreneur starts a business with a group of friends. There’s four of them, and at the beginning, they have a shared vision. Everyone is working really hard and each feels a sense of ownership over the business. While it was the brainchild of all four of them, the entrepreneur in question is the person in whose name the business is filed. As time goes on, failures in communication occur repeatedly. These failures are then compounded by a lack of awareness of the impact. More time passes. A breach of integrity occurs that calls the entrepreneur’s character – and thus the business – into question. People leave. The business struggles along as the entrepreneur continues to rally new people to the cause. Another breach of integrity occurs. Still unwilling to acknowledge the reality of the failure, the entrepreneur is asked to step down because the business cannot uphold its own integrity whilst being associated with the entrepreneur.
This is a scary situation! It’s not something any person or entrepreneur wants to be faced with. It’s also very easy to look at someone else and see the lack of responsibility and humility.
Sure, you can fail and you can fail a lot. But if you can’t recognize key failures – if you want to turn a blind eye when it really matters – you are in your own way. You are in the way of growth and improvement in your own business. The overarching result of this is that the business – and the people in it and served by it – suffers and pays the price. Repeatedly.
I want to be clear – sometimes we fail and the failure turns out to be a blessing, so moving on is the natural course of action. Other times, the failure requires awareness and discussion in order to determine how to determine an effective redirection and realignment. It’s this type of failure that is so critical to acknowledge and not blow past, no matter how uncomfortable it is. Failures of this kind tend to be endemic and persistent, which means that, left unacknowledged, no changes can be made. The person who has experienced the failure is literally standing in the way of progress.
How, then, do you face failure in a productive way? How do you stare it in the face and recognize it for what it is?
- Be honest. With yourself first, then with your team. Do not deflect or foist responsibility onto someone else or circumstances.
- Agree that you are a human. You are not perfect.
- Ask for help in moving through the failure.
- Identify points of reconciliation if necessary. This is engaging in truth with anyone who was hurt by the failure.
Activity: Identify a failure you witnessed that compounded over time. What do you think the person who failed could have done differently to avoid the damage done by the compounded failure? Now, turn the lens on yourself. What can you learn from the situation you described? Is there a personal failure that you can apply this to today?