Failure Had A Price. Failure Has A Price. Failure Will Always Have A Price.
I’m guilty of preaching the “Don’t fire your innovators who fail” sermon to upper management.
I’ve done it many times.
Sometimes I’ve seen my advice followed, sometimes not.
The idea behind the sermon isn’t wrong. But when I look at the reasons why innovators who fail get pushed aside I find that the reasons lie less with management and more with the innovators themselves.
So assuming a company at least gives lip service to the idea that improvement and innovation is worth the pain of learning through failure, what differentiates the innovator-who-thrives versus the innovator-who-is-sent-packing when things get difficult?
Turns out the push aside vs treat as a learning experience decision depends more on how the innovator communicates and sets expectations than in how the project itself turns out. In a well run organization managers will make their decision based on your perceived future value - not on the cost of your most recent escapade. This allows managers to maintain a significant cost of failure while minimizing its impact on the future of the organization.
Over the next few weeks I’ll look at how Personality, Perseverance and Politicking can determine if you as an innovator will survive the failure (and believe it or not - the success) of your innovative project. Also we’ll look at why it’s useful for managers to maintain that fear of failure while promoting innovation.
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