The failure challenge
On the Association Renewal blog, Jamie Notter pulls Peter O'Neil's recent Acronym post into an ongoing minidiscussion from several different bloggers on taking action and taking risks.
A short history of the discussion follows: Jeff De Cagna questions the language used in an Associations Now article. Ben Martin and I clarify/defend the language that Jeff questions. Jamie weighs in (and again), and I leave a comment on his blog.
Finally, Jamie nicely pulls in Peter's post on lessons he saw in a Cirque du Soleil show, specifically latching on to "risky moves, when flubbed, were always celebrated," boiling it down to "celebrating failure."
Let me give a brief scenario: An organization plans an education session and budgets for 150 to participate. A grand total of 15 sign up. The organization had planned to make $5,000 and instead loses $10,000. Why in the world would you celebrate that failure?
I think most organizations would do one of two things. The dysfunctional organization is immediately going to start pointing fingers. "Marketing didn't reach the right people," or "The program topic wasn't worth marketing," or "The meetings folks booked a terrible venue." I call it the blame game, and it's a culture I've been in before and let me tell you, everybody gets bloody.
Most associations would probably call the failed education session a "learning opportunity." They learned something about the market, the place, the marketing tactics, the topic, etc. That's probably true, but I'd label this the approach of the mediocre organization.
I like Jamie's post a lot. Celebrating wrong is very difficult, but exceptional organizations will do it anyway. What is there to celebrate about the failed education session? Maybe the 15 members who came left with a new outlook that makes them and their organizations stronger. Maybe it was an edgy topic that was just a little bit too edgy, but it was worth a shot. Maybe it was a new format or approach that was worth a shot. The chances are, if you can't come up with reason to celebrate the failure, then you probably do work for a mediocre organization—or at least it had a very mediocre moment.
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Comments
But in your education scenario, is that a "risky move" as Peter defines it? I think probably not and that's a key difference here. We definitely should celebrate chances and risks taken even when they don't work out, but we should not get in the habit of patting ourselves on the back for mundane efforts inadequately executed.
Posted by: Jeffrey Cufaude | November 7, 2006 8:41 PM
I agree completely with you, Jeffrey. I felt the need to keep the scenario simple as the post was getting longer than I wanted already. And I thought I had addressed your concerns in the last paragraph:
"The chances are, if you can't come up with reason to celebrate the failure, then you probably do work for a mediocre organization—or at least it had a very mediocre moment."
You say: "we should not get in the habit of patting ourselves on the back for mundave efforts inadequately executed."
To me, mundane, especially when not executed adequately, equals mediocre. Perhaps "come up with reason" wasn't precise enough. You have to be real; the reason has to be worthy of celebration whether the end is success or failure (or both).
Posted by: Scott Briscoe | November 9, 2006 7:52 AM