When experiments, tests, or pilot project fail, reflect on why they fail, not who failed. For Creative Agility to help with innovation, it requires a no-penalty culture.
Week 18: Reflecting On Failure For Creative Agility
Traditional leadership:
The convention has been to blame others for poor results rather than to focus on learning from experiments, tests, or pilots.
A fresh approach:
New-era leaders should not blame people for failed results when innovating. Instead, they should rigorously seek to understand why the effort failed.
Bring it to life:
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- Regularly conduct a post-mortem with teams when an experiment is not successful.
- Ensure everyone has access to the same data.
- Reflection should be done consciously, collaboratively, and openly.
- Take time for self-reflection and encourage employees to do the same.
- Create a no-penalty culture, where people are free to change their minds or be on the wrong side of an issue.
- Encourage teams to use learning to inform next steps.
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Next week: Creative Agility – Adjust.