You Celebrate Failures but you don’t know it.
The root of this misunderstanding lies in perceptions.
The slogan "Celebrating failures" is often misunderstood and generates tension when mentioned by PM and Growth leaders, despite many embracing the concept.
The root of this misunderstanding lies in perceptions.
In many cultures, failure is stigmatized and even the mere mention of it triggers negative associations and punishment, and this makes people defensive and resistant to the idea.
Celebrating failures seems like an oxymoron - how can you enjoy something associated with punishment? However, in this context, celebrating doesn't mean enjoying failures, but rather observing and honoring them.
For instance, National Memory Day is not associated with enjoyable activities. Similarly, the celebration of failures does not involve enjoying them, but rather turning them into valuable learning experiences.
This is a strong requirement for creating high-performing teams that keep innovating.
How to foster psychological safety and risk-taking culture through failures
When discussing innovation and failure, it is essential to address the importance of psychological safety and risk-taking. These two elements are crucial for building and nurturing high-performing teams.
Achieving psychological safety requires more than just clear and thoughtful communication.
To give you scientific reference evidence based on Psychological safety empowering high-performing teams, read this paper published in Human Resource Management Review, 2017 → Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature
It also requires implementing processes and rituals that allow team members to openly and comfortably discuss challenging topics related to failure. By doing so, teams can work together to find solutions, reduce fear of negative outcomes, and increase their tolerance for taking risks.
For those of you who perform recurrent Retrospective (retros) and Post-mortem, congrats you are celebrating failures!
These meetings provide an excellent opportunity to create an environment where team members feel comfortable sharing the truth and being vulnerable. They also help to reinforce the idea that making mistakes and learning from them isn’t only acceptable, but necessary.
However, retros and post-mortems are not the only rituals that can be used to celebrate failures and promote psychological safety in a culture that values risk-taking. To inspire you, I have gathered a few additional examples from my network.
Here are 3 rituals to support high performing teams to embrace failure and keep innovating:
Model your portfolio on high-risk hypothesis
Allocate X% of your portfolio or roadmap to experimental initiatives that carry a high degree of risk but also have the potential for significant ROI returns (beyond expectations).
Reference: “When and How to Take Big Swings”, Morgan Brown, Scott Tousley, Natalie Rothfels, Reforge Blog.Do serial Pre-Mortem Analysis
The goal of a Pre-mortem analysis is to identify and address potential problems before they become actual problems. Here is how it works: the team imagines that a project actually vital has failed and then works backward to identify potential causes of failure. During the meeting, team members brainstorm potential failure scenarios and identify strategies to mitigate those risks before they happen.
Reference: “The Preventable Problem Paradox”, Shreyas Doshi, Twitter, 2020.
Quarterly Failure Reports. Each quarter, convene with the team and record 3 or 4 notable failures. Provide the team with the opportunity to reflect on “what you learned” and “what you would do differently” in light of these results.
Reference: “How to create a growth Mindset, culture in your organization”, Peep Laja and Casey Carey, LinkedIn, 2023.
Take home message
Celebrating failures is a significant aspect for nurturing high performing teams. I hope that the next time you encounter failure, you will perceive it through a different lens.