Day #734 - Going Wrong

Experiences and Expectations of Failure

River got a science set for his sixth birthday (in fact he got three of them. You see, I was right, science is cool). So we have been doing experiments, one of which went wrong.

This led us into a whole conversation about how science ‘works’, and why ‘being wrong’ is part of the process. Eventually we agreed to redo the experiment, to see if we got the same (wrong) result, as well as considering what it would mean if we got a different result second time around (e.g. was physics wrong, or were we sloppy…).

When I looked into ‘Experimentation and Failure’ in FTSE 100 Organisations, I also saw that our relationship with failure was tenuous and erratic at best. So it turns out that even grown ups can be a bit crotchety about it.

Use your sixty seconds today to consider the role of failure in your practice.

This may include thinking about when it’s safe, and when it hurts (you may have the scars on your knees or elbows to prove it.

The Trust research is pretty clear on this: trust is linked to the consistency of response to failure over time. If Leaders are erratic in how they deal with it, we will feel less trusting of them.

Thanks for bearing with me as I have been erratic myself these last few weeks! And welcome to everyone new to our Community this week. You are very welcome in this space. Where we are in a dialogue with our Leadership practice, for sixty seconds a day.