FAILURE! We don't like to talk about it (unless it is someone else's, at which point we will gossip - I mean pray - about it). We certainly don't want to admit to failure. FAIL is definitely a "four letter word" and we just do not want to allow its use in our conversations. We want to find ways to label it something else or claim some sort of odd victory out of it. Success is our goal and the only option we want to acknowledge!
There have been more than a few occasions when I have labeled an event or a program a failure and others have argued with me. They have pointed out reasons that it "wasn't really a failure because . . .". I believe that type of response comes out of our fear of being labeled a failure and a misunderstanding of what failure actually means.
Let's check out some definitions of failure:
1. an act or instance of failing or proving unsuccessful; lack of success
2. nonperformance of something due, required, or expected
3. a subnormal quantity or quality; an insufficiency
So failure is a lack of success, the nonperformance of something expected, or a subnormal quantity or quality. Isn't that exactly what we are talking about here? An experience that falls short of what we had expected or hoped for is by definition a failure. Rather than trying to ignore it, hide it, or rename it, why don't we just accept it for what it is and learn what to do next?
One of the dangers of not owning our failure is that we never learn anything from it. The better course of action is to claim the failure and then follow several key steps:
1. Ask ourselves, "What can we learn from this?"
2. What could we have done differently?
3. What next?
What can we learn from this? This question is a significant one. Maybe through the process of failing we can learn more about ourselves and our organization. Perhaps we can better discover who we are and how we carry out our vision. Maybe we learn more about our actual vision, how to articulate it, and how we implement it. Was the entire concept wrong or are there other reasons it failed?
On a personal level, we may learn who we really are and what our purpose is by evaluating the failure.
What could we have done differently? Was the timing wrong? Was the location wrong? Did we place the right personnel in the right position? Could we have advertised better or promoted better internally? Did we sell the vision? If the project or event matches our vision and purpose, then these questions can be of great value in determining why we failed and what we can concentrate on for the future.
What next? Now that "it" has failed, what do we do next? Maybe we identify that the problem was simply that project wasn't us! It didn't match our purpose or wasn't a part of our DNA. If that is the case, then we let it go and move on.
Or maybe we realize the problem was in the logistics. If we had done things differently, we would have experienced success. In this scenario, we might relaunch with the new procedures in place. As Henry Ford said, "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely."
A third exciting option when we have failed is to look at exactly what it now enables us to do! That's right - failure can sometimes be enabling. Before the failure, we were investing time, people, and finances in the project. Now that it has ceased, what can we do with those resources? Maybe the failure simply frees us up to do something bigger, better, more significant!
"If you have made mistakes, even serious ones, there is always another chance for you. What we call failure is not the falling down but the staying down." (Mary Pickford, movie actress and co-founder of Untied Artists Studios)
