bob sutton published some nice words about innovation and on how much failure is related to it. he brings out that in a creative environment there should be enough room for experiment, errors and learning. i really support this idea and therefore want to recommend his list of advices that correspond to it here:
- take a little risk
- try something you are bad at
- encourage someone who has given their all and failed – don’t humiliate or punish them
- 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
- talk about your mistakes and let others know what you have learned from them (this is all about after action reviews and retrospectives)
- punish inaction
- punish “cover your ass” behavior – that isn’t the kind of action we need right now