Reward Success and Failure, Punish Inaction

This is idea #6 from Weird Ideas That Work.  Unfortunately, even though there is massive evidence that innovation is impossible without action, that no learning or creativity is possible without failure either, we have entered an era of fear.  I feel it everywhere, in every industry, even among the companies and people who are riding out the bad times well.  The unstated motto these days is "Reward Success and Inaction, Punish Failure."  This is a perfect recipe for REAL failure.  It seems that trying and failing are now out of fashion.  I am not saying urging people to take risks that are too big, as Diego says, you need a place and a time for failing.  Just as I have argued about the virtues of small wins, I believe that one of the keys to getting out of this mess if for all of us to find ways to accept and learn from small loses. 

It is worth remembering research on difference between the most creative and successful people versus their more ordinary peers.  Einstein and da Vinci had more bad ideas than their peers.  Babe Ruth struck out more.  That is because they acted, failed, learned, and kept moving forward. 

As I wrote here about 18 months ago:

"U.C. Davis Professor Dean Keith Simonton, who has spent much of his career doing long-term quantitative studies of creative genius,  has concluded that a high failure rate is a hallmark of creative geniuses -- he concludes that the most creative people -- scientists,  composers, artists, authors, and on and on -- have the greatest number of failures because they do the most stuff.  And he can find little evidence that creative geniuses have a higher success rate than their more ordinary counterparts; they just take more swings at the ball. Check out his book Origins for Genius , perhaps the most complete review of research on the subject." 

Some advice for all of us... I am having trouble following too, I confess, but let's try:

1. Take a little risk.

2. Try something you are bad it

3.  Encourage someone who has given their all and failed -- don't humiliate or punish them.

4.  Remember that by insisting on perfection and worrying too much that something bad will happen, you preclude the possibility that something great happen  -- or of suffering failure that will teach you a lesson that will make you a huge success the time after.

5.  Talk about your mistakes and let others know what you have learned from them.

6. Punish inaction.

7. Punish CYA behavior -- that isn't the kind of action we need right now.  (I put-up a snide post about A-Rod yesterday, but I have to applaud him for admitting his mistake. John Thain --and Barry Bonds -- could learn something from him.)

It is time for a little movement.  In this spirit, I had the idea of putting up a picture of an Ex-Lax box on this post to convey that message.  I decided not to do it, but I am going to take the little risk. Is it in bad taste? Probably, but I hope it helps you remember the message.

 

P.S. Speaking of Ex-Lax, this is one my favorite "asshole boss" revenge stories.  See tip #3.

Comments

[Wally Bock]

Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.

http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2009/02/11/21109-midweek-look-at-the-business-blogs.aspx

Wally Bock

[jcw]

i love this list. though my greatest successes have all involved what i perceived to be significant risks, i still find myself all too often wanting to play it safe (and overestimating the fallout if i do make a mistake).
great post.

[Greg]

I have witnessed this mindset when I was a government contractor. The mat went something like this:

All success added together can equal no more than 1
For each failure add -1

So someone who accomplished nothing was father ahead than someone with 100 successes and 2 failures.

A rather miserable enviorment to work in.

[Hayli @ RiseSmart]

I love Diego's idea of having a place for failure. Companies should definitely designate one place - or more practically speaking, one or two times every year - that new concepts and initiatives are encouraged. Obviously, it's much more difficult to get this moving within an organizational structure (as opposed to working independently), but it can certainly bring new energy to the organization and possibly even reduce turnover.

[Jim Holbrook]

I am an avid fan and recovering ass hole... I chuckled at your photo of the Ex Lax box, because at the same time, on CNN, was an ad for Phillips' Colon Health. ( http://phillipsrelief.com/colon_health.html)
So, maybe a little movement is a good thing, but a healthy asshole is really important, too!

[Andrew Meyer]

Bob,

with all due respect, I think you've reached a point where only companies over a certain size or people who have achieved certain success criteria have the funds or the confidence to contact you. That is the problem of being a big time author from Stanford. People's expectations are such that they don't approach you if they haven't attained certain levels of success.

My little company has signed contracts that'll bring in over $300K in 2009 and we're even more optimistic about 2010.

We're not a big time company and we don't have heavy funding or fancy Stanford contacts, but we're doing well, excited about the future and love you're stuff. Maybe in a couple years, we'll earn our way onto your calendar.

Believe me, there will be no one who is more excited to knock on your door. Of course, we'd really like to have the conversation over a beer in the afternoon or a coffee in the morning, but we're simple Midwest folk who happen to be excited about the future.

Please don't ever think that you're not helping us here out on the front lines.

Your biggest, little fan,

Andy

[michael webster]

Hmm, I am going to guess that this is a diagnostic and not causal effect.

Creative people just have a lot of ideas, not enough time to think all of them through, but get behind two or three snowballs in their lifetime.

Not convinced that mimicking creativity will produce the same result.

[dblwyo]

HERE, HERE. HERE, HERE ! As for good taste, well you take a byte and let us know. Personally I used to start some speeches to the sales force on selling big and complex deals by holding up a box of suppositories and telling them that if they were looking for a silver bullet here they were. It takes hard work, discipline, risk tolerance and a non-sociopathic corporate culture. Unfortunately both anecdotally and via survey (McKinsey and Booz) the leadership of major worldwide corporations are frozen in shell-shock and not more than 5%, I mean this literally, of the way toward the wrenching initiatives they need to take.
Consider this assessment:
http://llinlithgow.com/bizzX/2009/01/survivor_search_for_the_next_b.html