Failing Forward, Fast, and Frequently

Create a culture of risk takers. Of people willing to speak up. Of people not afraid to make mistakes. When people feel safe, they free their mind to have space to be creative. They are not wasting precious brain cells worrying. They can let it all flow. The pace of change is faster than ever, so if you and your organization don’t want to be left in the dust it is critical to enable a culture where failure isn’t a dirty word. What we want is people who fail fast. Don’t get into analysis paralysis to call a spade a spade, to let something that didn’t as planned go, and move on. In the immortal words for Frozen, “Let It Go”. All failure propels us forward. As Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” And all of those 10,000 ways providing inspiration and insight for what ultimately does work. Failing frequently; Make it play, make work a sandbox. When you fail often it becomes less mysterious. People see that the sky doesn’t fall, and they become open to take risks. No one lost their job, no one was scolded or shamed. We all still move forward toward the common vision.

It reminds of an exercise I learned at a relatively young age (thanks mom) when my anxiety would take hold. I would be worrying and ruminating over something and I would go through the “then what?” exercise. If this happened, then what would happen, and then what, and then what… and go all the way down until I couldn’t think of anything more. At the end of my ‘then whats’ no one died, we are all safe with a roof over our head, and although yes maybe things would change, it would be ok. The worst of my concerns turned out to not be so bad after all. I think the exercise for me was more about getting it all out of my head rather than seeing the implications. PS try journaling if you suffer like I do. When you think about what the biggest concern you have about failure is, you may realize, uhmm nothing catastrophic happens….

Being able to build a culture of psychological safety also means empowering people. The need for a cultural norm that Thomas Edison had the right idea. There are no failures, there are only learnings. Each action we take propels us forward. A true growth mindset. Another way to obtain this culture is with transparency. Transparency for leaders to stand up and say, “this is what I did, I didn’t work, this is what I learned, and it’s ok”. Role modeling. Huge. Showing vulnerability. Huge. What if we could imagine our lives as a science lab, trying new things, identifying quickly what doesn’t work, learning, then putting it behind us, taking what does work, what does make us and the people around us feel good, what gets us closer to the vision for ourselves and our organization, the growth would be remarkable!

I invite you to try something new, either in your personal life or professional work. When we aren’t worried about it not going perfectly we can open ourselves to new experiences that feed our growth and learning.

 “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” ~Robert H. Schuller

PS. You have now received your daily dose of Disney songs if you click on the links. Happy Friday Eve!

Feedback: 7 Tips to Keep in Mind for Giving Meaningful Feedback

As managers of people, it is your accountability and privilege to provide those on your team feedback. They say, “feedback is a gift”, which I genuinely believe. If we only have information that supports our view of ourselves, we wouldn’t have any fodder to grow!

The purpose of feedback is for growth and development. It is not to cut someone down or highlight their imperfections. With this great honor also comes responsibility to understand people, their motivation, their strengths, and what skills are critical, nice to haves, and just your preference for the role people are performing. Before giving feedback, it is important to really know those you are giving feedback to. Ask people what is important to them, what their values are, what they value in their work. These are things you want to know about the people you manager. After all you became a manager to serve people. Right? If not…. Let’s talk…

A few things to consider when building the foundation to give feedback.

1) Ask. Ask people how they want feedback. Let people share how they will be able to hear and respond best to the point of view you are providing.

2) Be open. Ask your team for feedback on yourself. Build a culture that walks the talk, where feedback is about growth and development and everyone has growth opportunities. It fosters a psychologically safe environment when the surround sound reflects a growth mindset.

3) Share your viewpoint. Share your purpose for feedback. Why is it important to you to be able to give it and receive feedback? No, it isn’t just the company policy or your job….

4) Speak second. Let people tell you what they think is going well. What areas they know they need to improve on. It makes for a smoother dialogue.

5) Be specific. If you have difficult feedback to give, which we should at some point since no one is perfect and we all have room to do better, be sure to use specific examples and the impacts of their actions you observed. No one wants to hear generalities. Not only is it unhelpful, but because it feels (and is) vague people won’t be able to incorporate it or try something different in the future.

6) Use emotion. I have heard people say, “it is business, leave your emotions out of it”. I don’t think I can express how opposed I am to this. Emotional Intelligence includes using your emotions to have the impact that you want in conversations. How do you want to feel? How do you want the other person to feel? This is the difference between being a leader people remember fondly versus someone they once worked with. Emotions may also be relevant to the feedback you need to provide, as the persons behavior may have an emotional component as to how they have left others feeling.

7) Consider culture. Make sure what you are giving as feedback doesn’t have a cultural implication. For example, “you need to make eye contact with people.” Maybe that is not part of their cultural norms and is not authentic to them. I won’t spend anymore time on the Equity, Inclusive, and Diversity, as I am far from well versed on this topic, but it is an important one that we should all be educated on.

Being in a position to give feedback is a gift. When done correctly giving and getting feedback can have a profound impact on ones career, skills, self-worth, motivation, as well as building stronger more trusting relationships. I hope you take as much care in doing this part of your job as you do in the functional demands. Giving and receiving feedback with positive intentions and a growth mindset makes this part of the job less scary.

“We all need people who will give us feedback. That is how we improve.” ~ Bill Gates