Principled Innovation LLC

Begin with failure in mind

January 12th, 2009

“What does success look like?”

For obvious reasons, this is arguably the most popular question we ask in our organizations when discussing new ideas.  But what if it’s the wrong question?

The work of innovation creates new uncertainties around possible outcomes, increasing our anxiety and fear.  Considering how today’s difficult economic conditions are already ramping up our anxiety, perhaps a better way to approach innovation is to confront our unfounded and irrational fears head on from the outset.  Rather than develop a fixed mental image of how great the world could be if our ideas achieve their full potential, only to be disappointed later, we should instead consider exploring the full range of worst case scenarios first because, in all likelihood, none of these scenarios will ever occur.  Once we render our imagined failures meaningless, we can get serious about our pursuit of real-world success.

So, the next time a new idea comes up in your organization, think about asking the following question:  what are the dimensions of possible failure?  Without a doubt, it will be the start of a scary conversation, and not everyone will be comfortable.  But I invite you to challenge your colleagues and yourself to stay within this question for as long as possible.  We always say that we learn more from failure than from success.  By openly exploring failure from the very beginning, we can learn that much more.

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