I have been an enthusiastic devotee of this philosophy since I first learned about it in the context of learning Lean methodology. Over the years I’ve noticed that there has seemed to be a slow adoption rate for this philosophy (more slowly with staff than with leaders). To my understanding (at the time), this idea had no downside. It emphasized taking action and not being paralyzed by seeking perfection. Learning from failure and then moving on to a better version of the sought-after solution.
As I could only see an upside, I struggled to understand why it has not been as enthusiastically applied as it seems to me it should be. Leaders that I have spoken with are often reluctant to embrace it and significantly, frontline staff seem to go to great lengths to not participate. I have observed reluctance to such a degree that I have begun to question my excitement. “What do they know that I don’t?”, I would ask myself.
As I have observed, read and discussed this philosophy with many executive and senior leaders, middle managers and frontline staff members, what has become more apparent to me is that failures have a price. That concept had not occurred to me before. When it did occur to me, I thought surely the costs are insignificant (actually and honestly – my first thought was, “What price?!”). I have come to learn more about the price of failure.
The most obvious price, which I will discuss first is the dollar-cost. It is the most obvious and therefore the easiest to identify examples. Failure of a product, workflow or process costs the organization money. Most organizations have such large budgets that the cost of many failures is sometimes insignificant to leaders and not noticeable to staff. I once heard the cost of a failure referred to as “budget dust” when it was put in perspective to the overall budget. Departments and teams can/will have their budgets replenished. They will be made whole at some point in the budgeting process.
Where the organization costs of failure can seem insignificant, the cost people experience can be more significant. Stephen Covey wrote about Emotional Bank Accounts (EBA). He says in relationships we make deposits in the EBA of our friends, families and coworkers when we do something well. We write checks (withdrawals) against that account when we do something poorly. Failures will be classified as a withdrawal by team members. Staff members that I have met believe that failures will be a withdrawal from their EBA of their banker/boss no matter how much they are told it is not.
Edison and his lightbulb are the too often cited OG of Fail Early, Fail Often. He is quoted as saying “I have not failed; I have found 10,00 ways that will not work”. Someone (not me) has calculated the dollar cost of each of Edison’s light bulb filament failure. The calculation of these 10,000 failures is said to have cost approximately $40,000 ($850,000 in 2023 dollars). I am guessing that there was a guy who, at the same time as Edison, was working on finding a filament for the light bulb. You and I have never heard of him because he only had enough money to fund 9999 failures. He was willing to fail at least one more time but, alas, he was not able to continue because he was $8 short.
Failures have a cost:
- Financial
- Emotional
- Individual self esteem
- Team morale
- Individual and Team status
- Image and prestige
- Customer/Investor patience
The cost of failure is an important but often overlooked factor in change management. Most important consideration is the replenishment of EBA funds for the people cost. Along with Fail Early-Fail Often, one author has added “Fail Cheaply”. I say, even cheap is not free.
If you are promoting the philosophy of early & often failure:
- Promote the associate budget
- Define the replenishment process (How will staff get their emotional budgets replenished?)
- Ensure that your people are failing within their budget.
Let’s have a conversation about how you budget for failure.