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Learn From Failure
The real challenge is how to strike that cultural balance where failure is viewed as a necessary learning tool, but not one where individuals constantly veer into reckless, anything-goes behavior. Accountability, on all levels, remains important.“The most successful executives will say that it’s dealing with tough challenges and falling down and getting back up again [that makes them successful],” said Kurt Metzger, vice president and senior consultant at financial services firm Prudential Financial Inc. “It’s the old what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”Embrace Strategic Failures
Creating this type of culture, however, isn’t necessarily a task the CLO can own exclusively. An organization that deals with and values failure as part of its growth process must create that environment at the C-suite level, said Erv Lessel, director of human capital at Deloitte Consulting LLP and a former major general in the U.S. Air Force. There are areas where the CLO can provide influence to help lay a framework for a less conservative, more innovation-driven learning environment down the road.Training, education and experiential learning programs all have the potential to serve as breeding grounds for mini, or “cheap,” failures, each of which promote growth, take chances, but don’t kill the business, Lessel said. For example, the CLO can leverage leadership development efforts that seek to instill competencies and experiences that will open up future leaders to the idea of embracing a culture where cheap failures, or failures by experimentation, aren’t avoided but valued instead. They also can provide executive insight into specialty areas such as crisis and risk management initiatives when major failures occur.Creating a culture of calculated risks and failures has its limits, however. “What you don’t want is a ‘failure culture,’” said Sim B. Sitkin, professor of management and faculty director for the Center on Leadership and Ethics at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. “What you do want is a learning culture. There is a difference.” There are instances when embracing failure as a learning tool might be inappropriate. “In the short run, when you’re dealing with an absolute crisis, you can’t afford it,” Sitkin said.
Creating this type of culture, however, isn’t necessarily a task the CLO can own exclusively. An organization that deals with and values failure as part of its growth process must create that environment at the C-suite level, said Erv Lessel, director of human capital at Deloitte Consulting LLP and a former major general in the U.S. Air Force. There are areas where the CLO can provide influence to help lay a framework for a less conservative, more innovation-driven learning environment down the road.Training, education and experiential learning programs all have the potential to serve as breeding grounds for mini, or “cheap,” failures, each of which promote growth, take chances, but don’t kill the business, Lessel said. For example, the CLO can leverage leadership development efforts that seek to instill competencies and experiences that will open up future leaders to the idea of embracing a culture where cheap failures, or failures by experimentation, aren’t avoided but valued instead. They also can provide executive insight into specialty areas such as crisis and risk management initiatives when major failures occur.Creating a culture of calculated risks and failures has its limits, however. “What you don’t want is a ‘failure culture,’” said Sim B. Sitkin, professor of management and faculty director for the Center on Leadership and Ethics at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. “What you do want is a learning culture. There is a difference.” There are instances when embracing failure as a learning tool might be inappropriate. “In the short run, when you’re dealing with an absolute crisis, you can’t afford it,” Sitkin said.
Sidebar
Avoid Playing The ‘Blame Game’
Failures, both individually and organizationally, while inconvenient in some situations, are not always bad. There are many reasons for failure.
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Events
Webinars
Leveraging the Latest in Brain Science to Deliver the Next Generation of E-Learning
May 29th 1:00pm - 2:00pm CT
Breakfast Clubs
2013 CLO Breakfast Club, Boston
September 12th - 12th, 2013The Westin Copley Place
Symposiums
Fall 2013 CLO Symposium
September 30th - October 2nd, 2013Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa
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