Failure and success tend to go hand in hand. One can't experience one without the other. Failure is how we learn, how we grow, how we change, and ultimately, how we succeed. And allowing ourselves the space for failure in our lives, is the greatest measure of one's success. There is a confidence in that. And boy, have I failed spectacularly in my life. Embracing failure is something I've worked very hard on in my life. When I first started doing theatre, I was introduced to the world of improvisational comedy. The first rule I learned from … [Read more...]
The Weight of Failure
Gravity is greater on Planet Freelance than on Planet Employee, and failure is heavier for a freelancer than for a company employee. During 20 years of employment in organizations and companies, I rarely experienced failure to a degree with consequences. Working in an organization, one is supported by strong leaders, mentors, and colleagues when taking risks. If the results don't meet the target, then the team together shoulders the responsibility. In an organization, typically, successes far outnumber failures. The overall accomplishments of … [Read more...]
Failure is an Option?
When conducting recent audience research with colleagues last year, we were stricken to hear from local teens that failure isn’t an option for them. With such a concentrated focus on achievement, teens feel that they have no time or space to fail. One of them told us adamantly, “I never fail. I will never fail.” It saddened all of us deeply and helped to engage us in a productive conversation about how we might create an atmosphere more conducive to failing productively and creatively in our own organization. We all instinctively know that … [Read more...]
Who is Allowed to Fail?
A few weeks ago I helped one of our community chefs fill out a $5,000 loan application to kickstart his own business. I emphasized to him that his proposal would be scrutinized by a board of directors of the funding organization. He needed to thoroughly think through his application, if he could do that between his double night shifts, because any questions about his application meant he might not receive the loan. This is because the funding organization had decided the first three ventures they funded could not fail. At various points in … [Read more...]
Scarcity, Abundance and Finding Your Own Way to Fail
“Let’s run an experiment and see what happens.” I say these words at least twice a week with complete freedom. Not just the freedom to take the risk, but the freedom from being attached in any way to the outcomes. Sure, I have my hunch. I’ve been doing this awhile, after all. But in this scenario, my expertise counts for very little; I am not the audience, and the audience is the expert in finding new and creative ways to confound me. The secret is that this is what actually makes it exciting. An organization where you are free to run as … [Read more...]
In a Risk-Averse Society, Failure is Our Way Forward
Classically trained artists and performers are typically possessed of levels of discipline, rigor and tenacity that are object lessons in the pursuit and achievement of excellence. Their training implies a somewhat linear refining of skills through iterative and gradual improvement, which is a route we commonly associate with success. No doubt, many of us who are managers and leaders in the nonprofit sector will do well to push ourselves and our organizations to new heights by channeling this relentless drive for virtuosity in our work. But … [Read more...]
Lessons from Failure
Failure is one of our key opportunities to learn from experience. In many respects, we learn more from our failures, those efforts that did not work, than we do from our successes. But it requires paying close attention. The virtuous cycle of plan, implement, evaluate, works well personally as well as professionally. Oftentimes, our failure is related to poor planning, but more often to poor execution of strategy. Leaders are often better at planning than they are at implementing, because the latter requires causing people to truly follow you, … [Read more...]
Worstward Ho! Is That How You Spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E?
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” —Samuel Beckett (Worstward Ho) The above quote from Beckett’s penultimate novella has become a popular battle cry of enlightened arts leaders. Many of us have developed and embraced a new way of going about things. Rather than let popular programs keep working not quite as well as they used to, we now practice arts leadership within a variety of effective innovation frameworks. We test, we prototype, we experiment, we ask, “what might it mean to do the opposite?”—and we … [Read more...]
You’re Among the Greats
The next time you fail, you will know that you are never alone. You’re among creative individuals like Toni Morrison, Perry Chen, Sarah Kaufman and countless others. Take a look at this amazing issue of NEA Arts Magazine on “The Art of Failure.” As we have illustrated on Field Notes this week, it is an art, one that you can practice and eventually (sort of) master. Remember to reflect, learn, and lead through failure. We'll be tuning back in next week with failure stories from the field. Don't miss it. “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. … [Read more...]
Being a Team Leader
Failing sucks. It can be a difficult time of navigating emotions, goals, and setbacks. Now, picture how much more difficult it is to guide others through a failure. We're sure that many of you don't have to let your imagination run too wild. You've probably been there. This is something leaders do constantly. Leading a team through failure is more difficult than a single individual, as different people have different reactions. This Harvard Business Review article gives clear instructions and motivations for leaders to help guide their teams … [Read more...]
A Design Thinking Frame of Mind
When you’re watching things go down in flames or they've just collapsed in front of you, it can be hard to keep a broad perspective and focus on moving forward productively. This article by Miriam Persley at Leadership Learning Community (which references Beth Kanter from our post yesterday as inspiration) provides a twist on a design thinking framework to give us a practical list for working through failure, in a healthy way: Gain Empathy: Reflect Gain Empathy: Dig Deeper Reframe: Infer Insights Reframe: Set A … [Read more...]
C’mon Celebrate!
Even when you’re in the middle of a sticky situation, it’s possible to find the humor in your predicament and change perspective. Although not all failures are productive, in fact, we’d reason to say that none of them are necessarily productive, there is still reason to celebrate! Writer Gwen Moran shares in Fast Company that by responding to failure with empathy and humor, you can foster a creative culture. Even if a setback gets you down, Gwen shares that it’s important to encourage a supportive environment at work to build trust and turn … [Read more...]
On Failure and Fun
In this video, Beth Kanter, discusses the prominent resistance to using failure in the nonprofit sector to our benefit or as a learning mechanism. It is helpful to move out of a ‘fixed’ mindset into a ‘growth’ mindset in order to use failure in a productive way. Rather than fixating on a tough situation, think about it in terms of growth! By being open to growth and change, you can use failure as an opportunity to improve. It takes some practice to get into this mindset though. Our first reactions to failure are typically negative. Beth … [Read more...]
When You Might Want to Worry
It’s day four of our journey in the land of failure. To date, the news has been fairly positive, if not supportive. It has focused on the celebration, the motivation. As with everything in life, it is important to balance the bad with the good. Moderate your acceptance of failure with the knowledge that not all failure is good. This article in the Harvard Business Review by Art Markman makes this important distinction between a ‘good’ failure and a ‘bad’ failure. Occasional failure is ok, but systematic failure means you have a real problem. … [Read more...]
Leading Change
“How can we do it better and should we even be doing it in the first place?” Does your organization look the same as it did five years ago? What about your creative practice? As individuals and organizations, we are constantly changing. We change because we encounter new ideas and recreate old ones. We think critically about how we are working and how we can make it better. But, change can be hard. Heck, change is hard. Fear of failure relates to fear of change. Aaron Dworkin, Dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre … [Read more...]