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Should you be embedding a culture of failure?

Writer's picture: Kat HounsellKat Hounsell

Failure can be a triggering word. To fail is often seen as the opposite of success. Ouch! It’s no wonder you aren’t rushing to be first in line to fail, especially at work. The very concept conflicts with what you’ve been taught to strive for.


Screenshot of a dictionary definition of the word failure, as the 'lack of success'.

We are no strangers to resistance to the word ‘failure’ based on our experience of discussing ‘failure’ metrics with leadership teams.


“I've failed many times trying to get leadership teams to embrace failure as a metric to measure the health of a team or department. In almost all cases, the response received is a request to reframe the metric in more positive language e.g. success rate, learning rate, experiment rate. In a few cases, failure metrics have been rejected completely.”

Adopting metrics related to ‘continuous improvement’ is likely to be much more readily accepted despite the fact that, in essence, it forces you to acknowledge that things aren’t perfect and may not get it right the first time. But did you fail? Or did you learn important lessons that will propel you towards success?


You may have heard the tale of Edison making 10,000 attempts to create a light bulb and James Dyson’s 5,126 attempts to invent a bagless vacuum cleaner. And you’d probably agree that they are successful individuals. Their gains came in the willingness to give things a go, having the grit and belief that a solution could be found and the determination to see the so-called ‘failures’ as a path towards a positive outcome.


Hand holding up a lightbulb against a sunset sky

There are many examples of successful people reflecting on their ’failures’ as being instrumental to their success.


Michael Jordan once said:

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game-winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

“When you take risks you learn that there will be times when you succeed and there will be times when you fail, and both are equally important.”

- Ellen DeGeneres


However, it’s not as easy to see failure as a friend when you haven’t achieved success, yet! Statements like ‘don’t be afraid to fail’ aren’t helpful if your organisation doesn’t embrace a culture that expects failure. No amount of feel-good inspirational quotes will change your behaviour if you don’t believe it will be looked on favourably.


There are some businesses that have embraced the idea of failing towards success. One of the better-known examples is Dyson, spurred on by founder, inventor and problem-solver extraordinaire, James Dyson. Dyson developed a fail-less culture in his company. All staff, and especially engineers, are encouraged to be naïve, curious, and ludicrous. He invites them to challenge conventional wisdom, flip what they know on its head, and explore without fear at what might first seem impossible. It’s led to some amazing results. For example, one of Dyson’s bestselling products, the Airblade dryer, was created while working on a totally unrelated product and trying out some crazy ideas.


Another is Flight Studio created by Stephen Bartlett of Dragon's Den fame. He is a such a great believer in the value of learning from failure that he invested in recruiting a Head of Failure for his organisation.


Developing a positive mindset toward failure is fundamental when working towards continual improvement. You have to accept that there could be a better way to do things to invest the time and effort into seeking out an alternative. Enthusiasm for experimentation and trying new things is often how the best solutions are found.


“Success is most often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable.”

- Coco Chanel


Statue of Winston Churchill
“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.”

- Winston Churchill



If you find the word ‘failure’ too much of a blocker, it could be worth considering a different framing, as in our first example. Experiments can be a useful concept as it implies that you don’t know the outcome at the onset and it focuses more on what you can learn from the process. Experiments are a key component of businesses using the Kaizen philosophy of continuous improvement.


“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”

- Thomas A. Edison


“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.”

- Henry Ford


Of course, there are always situations where "Failure is not an option," as NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz stated for the Apollo 13 mission. However, adopting small steps toward continual improvement should mean you have the knowledge and processes in place to succeed when it really matters. A rocket launch isn’t done on a whim; many experiments, learnings, blood, sweat, and tears lead up to the final countdown.


Embedding a culture of failure, whether you choose to give it another name or not, can provide the permission and freedom for the people you work with to be creative and curious. That’s where real innovation can be found.

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