Chris Corrigan Menu
  • Blog
  • Chaordic design
  • Resources for Facilitators
    • Facilitation Resources
    • Books, Papers, Interviews, and Videos
    • Books in my library
    • Open Space Resources
      • Planning an Open Space Technology Meeting
  • Courses
  • About Me
    • Services
      • What I do
      • How I work with you
    • CV and Client list
    • Music
    • Who I am
  • Contact me
  • Blog
  • Chaordic design
  • Resources for Facilitators
    • Facilitation Resources
    • Books, Papers, Interviews, and Videos
    • Books in my library
    • Open Space Resources
      • Planning an Open Space Technology Meeting
  • Courses
  • About Me
    • Services
      • What I do
      • How I work with you
    • CV and Client list
    • Music
    • Who I am
  • Contact me

106494842394246146

September 30, 2003 By Chris Uncategorized One Comment

From Fast Company comes a short article about failure, called Failure Is Glorious:

“The area of the ‘possible’ is the area in which we develop products that the customer will love and buy. The area of the ‘not possible’ is represented by the new projects that people are not yet ready to understand or accept.

Working close to the borderline is very risky, because you cannot see it with your eyes. It is not clearly drawn or marked. You can only feel it by using sensibility and intuition — two characteristics rare in industrial organizations that are led by technology rather than design. One step more, and you risk falling into the not-possible area. So most car producers, for example, work as far away as possible from the borderline. And step by step, they all end up producing the same car.”

Organizations willing to ply this borderline need robustness in all areas, including a robust purpose, vision and structure. That way when ideas fail, the entire enterprise is not called into question. Facilitating this kind of attitude means cultivating a culture of trial and error, where mistakes are allowed to happens and risks are encouraged. The trick is that everyone wants to be open to the great results that come from risk-taking, but very few people have the stomach for the magnitude of failure that can result. Using processes like Open Space Technology encourages a practice of working with the unknown. That practice, at both the individual and the corporate level helps develop a culture where failure and success on large scales can be tolerated, encompassed and learned from.

Thanks to Pure Content for the link.

Share:

  • Mastodon
  • Bluesky
  • LinkedIn
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Pocket
  • Telegram

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Share
  • Tweet
106502896976151908
106478994216784276

One Comment

  1. John says:
    August 5, 2007 at 6:58 am

    test

Comments are closed.

Find Interesting Things
Events
  • Art of Hosting November 12-14, 2025, with Caitlin Frost, Kelly Poirier and Kris Archie Vancouver, Canada
  • The Art of Hosting and Reimagining Education, October 16-19, Elgin Ontario Canada, with Jenn Williams, Cédric Jamet and Troy Maracle
Resources
  • A list of books in my library
  • Facilitation Resources
  • Open Space Resources
  • Planning an Open Space Technology meeting
SIGN UP

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
  

Find Interesting Things

© 2015 Chris Corrigan. All rights reserved. | Site by Square Wave Studio

%d