September 2014 Management Minute
“Permission to Fail”
by Chris Reinhardt, feedlot specialist
Failure is not an option. Or is it?…
In business, and in life, most of us treat failure as something to be feared and avoided at all costs, to the point where failure is rarely even discussed. We plan the next plan for what we will do after our first plan succeeds. So why would we ever even consider the possibility that we might actually fail?
There are multiple reasons we may fail: lack of accurate planning, poor execution of the plan, unexpected changes in the operating climate, or overly-aggressive planning.
If your plans have never come up short, good for you. That means you’re (a) an accurate planner; (b) execute your plans; and (c) anticipate any potential changes in your operating climate. However, if you have never failed, then you haven’t, at least from time to time, pushed your plans sufficiently close to the bleeding edge of your resources (time, personnel, capital) to where failure is a distinct possibility. If you’ve never failed, your plans have always been conservative. Although always planning conservatively is certainly not wrong, it should also give one pause.
If we have assembled a team of creative, ambitious, intelligent people, we may also want to give them all the freedom necessary to utilize 100% of their abilities. If, out of a fear of failure, we are heavy-handed and have created an environment where failure is not tolerated, an oppressive cloud descends over the organization, squelching any outside-the-box thinking. In this environment, two things will happen: (1) those talented people we’ve brought on board will withhold much of their creativity and ambition in order to operate comfortably within the known boundaries of your organizational dogma—the boundaries drawn and defined by what always has worked and what always will work; and then (2) those talented people—effectively the future hopes of the organization—will leave.
Good people will have opportunities outside your four walls. They commonly reject those outside opportunities when they know that they are (a) competitively compensated and (b) professionally fulfilled. It won’t matter, for very long anyway, that your salary and benefits package are equal to the industry standard if good, energetic, creative, ambitious people are routinely stifled. “Don’t bother thinking, we’ve already done that for you.” That might be the epitome of professional UN-fulfillment.
All businesses need some stability and predictability in costs and revenues. It is, however, possible to create an environment where creative problem solving and novel ideas are welcome, while at the same time ensuring the core business is maintained.
People are imbued with differing gifts, talents, and personalities, which are completely independent of intelligence or knowledge of subject matter. Some are more comfortable when they’re pushing the envelope; others are just fine with leaving the envelope right where it is. Part of management is managing these opposing traits: to direct change when change is appropriate, needed, and beneficial, and to postpone or redirect the desire for change when change is untimely, inappropriate, or excessive.
Failures within the team present a tremendous teaching and learning opportunity. Provided the failure is not catastrophic, the team can assess the cause of the failure to better plan in the future. And the tension and intensity of the response of the team leader will speak loudly as to whether risk and creativity should be avoided at all costs or whether the potential benefits of harnessing the full potential of the team’s collective talents to create new paradigms outweighs the potential risks.
Failure probably shouldn’t ever be accepted as “normal”, but if your team is never permitted—let alone encouraged—to push the envelope and risk failure, even on some small level, they simply will learn to never push, and you will never know what your organization might be truly capable of.