Fear of Failure

If you make a failure at work you may feel bad about it. You may break out in a sweat, or try to cover up your failure.

Perhaps a failures isn’t as bad as you think?

First of all, if you never fail you’re either incredibly lucky or (more likely) you don’t take any risks. Secondly, failures are one way of getting feedback. A failure is a learning opportunity.

How do you act after a failure? And how would you respond if a colleague shares a failure? Often we respond with disapproval, but did you know that a positive response is what is needed for a psychologically safe environment? The question is, what can you do to create a culture in which failures are allowed and perhaps even encouraged?

Responding to Failure

Below are a few practical tips to help create a culture in which failures are allowed.

Appreciate messengers

When somebody shares a failure your response must be positive! Thank them for sharing, and show that you understand how hard it can be to own up to a failure.

Focus on problem-solving

Once you’ve learned about a failure, start looking forward: what was the problem and how can we solve it? Don’t look for someone to blame. In most cases, failures are not blameworthy!

Find the Lessons

After the problem-solving, make sure to do a thoughtful after-action review. It is not enough to solve the problem, you want to find the lessons from these failures. Perhaps you can prevent these kind of failures going forward, or at least reduce the chance of them occurring again.

Celebrate failures

What better way to show that failing is okay, than to organize a failure party? Make sure it is fun, and focus on what we’ve learned from the failure.

Allow failures

Challenging experiences are the only way we develop certain coping and problem-solving skills. If we always shield people from making mistakes, key brain connections cannot develop. So when you see a less experienced colleague is heading for a failure, don’t intervene (unless the failure would be catastrophic).

Encourage failures

Make sure the message is clear: failures are okay. Hang up this poster, or stickers with encouraging quotes. Mention it on your intranet, in newsletters etc.

Do you want to find out more about learning from failures? Check out what we can do for you.