5 Tips on How Innovation Leaders Should Own Failures

Leaders of innovative companies love to advocate theories and platitudes about how they are able to “Fail-Fast-Forward,” create cultures of continuous improvement, and disrupt markets seemingly with magic pixy dust. Business school case studies and examples of successful companies make it seem like it’s easy to succeed in business and the great lore of American ingenuity is that anyone can become a billionaire with a good idea, a garage in silicon valley, and a few investors looking for the next Google.

Anyone who’s had their butt kicked by a failed product launch, a poorly designed user interface, or a marketing campaign gone wrong, knows that it’s never that easy and in reality takes years of hard work and process improvements to achieve a mindset of flawless execution. It is painfully true that innovative leaders executing their innovation strategies make mistakes every day. Sometimes they lose customers as a result, and sometimes they stumble onto something new and disruptive that they never thought of.

For example, who remembers the Apple Newton? The Newton was a complete disaster for Apple. Touted as a new and innovative Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) it was 15 years before it’s time because it was launched before the internet and cellular phone service.  It literally did nothing but take notes and keep an unconnected calendar. However, it was this failure that led to the development of Apple’s iPhone.

During a recent workshop I developed on Creating a Culture of Innovation, we conducted a brainstorming session about what leaders of innovative cultures should do internally and externally about owning the errors and failures that naturally occur when going for disruption.  I think this is a great list and can be used as a tool and guide:

With almost 100% certainty the leader didn’t sit in an isolated room and come up with an idea that couldn’t work. There were teams of really smart people who also messed up. What’s the point of creating a culture of blame and throwing people under the bus? The innovative leader should own it and rejoice in owning it. The message to the culture is loud and clear that mistakes will happen and as long as the organization learns and gets better, it’s ok.  However, if the same mistakes are made over and over, then there needs to be strong actions taken.

Being open and transparent is key to long term success. Once the leader starts lying or making up stories, true credibility is lost. Share with others internally and externally what is really happening and don’t try to sugar coat it.  The worst thing you are saying is that you tried something new and different and it didn’t work.  If you try to cover it up, then everyone remembers the lies and not the learning or innovation.

After transparency comes sharing of the learning and process for improvement. People, especially customers, want to know that not only did you learn from the mistake, but you have a plan to fix the mistake and that mistake won’t happen again.

Giving a customer some words about learning from mistakes and pledging to get better will fall short without actually getting better and proving that your organization is capable of adapting and improving.  If you are better for a while and then you make another mistake, the penalty of the second mistake won’t be as severe as if you make the mistake and didn’t learn from it.

After making a mistake when trying to be innovative, one of the best things you can do it to provide any impacted parties with a positive gesture. One of my participants shared that they thought they had developed a new material that could withstand very cold underwater temperatures.  It did for a while until the water pressure started to impact the materials and it failed well before of the forecasted time.  The customer was furious and after sharing with the customer the process and the learning that will go into the next round of material development, the manufacturer made a donation of $5,000 to the customer’s choice charity in his name. The customer was touched by the gesture and it showed that the manufacturer was serious about making amends.