Taking Accountability For Failure

“Learning from both successes and failures” is an Own It best practice, but most people and organizations still struggle to get it right. First, they don’t spend enough time understanding and communicating their successes (we’ll address taking accountability for successes in next week’s blog). Second, they don’t see mistakes as an integral part of “taking the necessary risks,” a Solve It best practice. Taking accountability for failure means recognizing that many of our most important lessons in life and work come from trial and error. Jim Owens, former CEO of Caterpillar Inc., is often remembered for reminding leaders that their most important lessons come from their toughest losses – but only if we learn from them.

Failure has become an oft-repeated buzzword in Silicon Valley these days. In a recent Fast Company article, Dave McClure, Founder of the business incubator 500 Startups, had this to say about failure:

“We’re here trying to ‘manufacture fail’ on a regular basis, and we think that’s how you learn. Getting used to that, bouncing back from that, being able to figure out what people hate and turn that into what people love…if you’re not willing to take the risk of failing and not experience failure, you’re never going to figure out what the right path is to success.”

Based on our experience with thousands of companies building greater accountability for achieving results, here’s what taking accountability for failure looks like to us: See It, view the failure from every possible angle until you understand it; Own It, embrace failure like Edison did, “I have just discovered another way that doesn’t work;” Solve It, continue to ask “what else can I do?” by applying lessons learned to achieve the results you want; and Do It, keep moving forward until you can make success happen.

Business failure isn’t new, but people and organizations that are faster and smarter at taking accountability for learning from it win big in the marketplace. IDEO Founder David Kelley, sees failure as a necessary ingredient for success. In fact, he encourages his people to become comfortable with bad ideas. Why? He firmly believes that people will always miss good ideas unless they have the freedom to pursue bad ideas.

To learn more about taking accountability for failure, join our Accountability Community at www.partnersinleadership.com, where you can review the accounts of actual people and organizations.

See It, Own It, Solve It, Do It and Accountability Community are all registered trademarks of Partners In Leadership, Inc.