{"id":4002,"date":"2014-03-11T08:33:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T16:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=4002"},"modified":"2014-03-11T08:33:35","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T16:33:35","slug":"creating-a-mindset-to-work-with-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/creating-a-mindset-to-work-with-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a mindset to work with failure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Innovation does not come without discarding ideas, trying and failing.  \u00a0In complex systems with complex challenges, failure is inevitable and desired.  \u00a0If we need to prototype to sense our way forward we have to have a mindset that can handle failure.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday at the Art of Participatory Leadership in Petaluma my new friend Shawn Berry convened a session on failure and through listening to stories ranging from small prototoyping failures to business breakdowns and even deaths, I noted a few patterns that are helpful for groups and people to address failure positively nd resourcefully<\/p>\n<p><strong>Frame it up.<\/strong> In North America and Europe we have a cultural aversion to failure.  \u00a0Failure is equated with inadequacy.  \u00a0Our self-esteem is tied to our success.  \u00a0Our compensation and status is affected by failure.  \u00a0Fear of failure is prevalent in the culture.  \u00a0In order to combat this tendency, it is helpful to work with a group to get them acquainted to failing.  \u00a0For more playful groups improv exercises can be an excellent way to drop inhibitions to try something and fail.  \u00a0More rational groups might benefit from a little appreciative inquiry where participants recall positive failing experiences.  \u00a0Reflecting and sharing on times of failure and survival reminds us that it is part of the process.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Support the experience. <\/strong>While groups are experimenting and learning, succeeding and failing it helps to have support and coaching present in the process.  \u00a0Depending on the kind of work being done you can offer support to keep a group resilient and unattached. \u00a0I have used several different kinds of processes here including the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Simply pausing for <a href=\"http:\/\/www1.aucegypt.edu\/maan\/pdf\/Reflection%20Toolkit%201.pdf\">reflection<\/a> periodically in the process to notice what is going on.  \u00a0Slowing the process down helps to gain valuable perspective on what is happening and helps a group move on quickly from failure.<\/li>\n<li>allowing failure to occur and then taking the subsequent stressful thoughts to an inquiry process using The Work of Byron Katie.  \u00a0We do this often when working with groups in the non-profit sector for example, where the pressure to succeed is accompanied by feelings of fear of the results of failing.<\/li>\n<li>In indigenous and other colonized cultural settings I have often had Elders and healers present who can care for the more invisible dynamics in the field, especially when our work is going to carry us into some of the sources of trauma.  \u00a0When you are working in a place where people are operating out of deep historical trauma, the fear of failure can be laden with many many deep seated implications.  \u00a0Having people in the process who understand these dynamics is essential.<\/li>\n<li>Peer-coaching is a common way to build resilience in groups where trying and failing is important.  \u00a0When a team is trying to learn something new it helps to also build the capacity for them to be able to rely on each other.  \u00a0This is why so many teams value &#8220;cross-training.&#8221;  \u00a0When athletes train, they often work out in ways that are not related to their sport _ a skier training by rowing for example.  \u00a0Doing this helps them to learn to use their body differently and builds strength that supports their core work.  \u00a0Similarly, work teams can learn a lot about themselves by creating situations of safe failure such as through improvisational exercises, outdoor experiences, games and other non-work focuses.  \u00a0The skills learned there can help support the team when they knuckle down to focus on key tasks and can support constructive failure within the work domain.  \u00a0Ultimately these skills will build capacity if they increase the ability of the group to support itself through stressful times.<\/li>\n<li>Developing a practice of greeting failure with joy.  \u00a0My friend Khelsilem Rivers taught me this one.  \u00a0He is &#8211; among other things &#8211; an indigenous language teacher and using the tool kit &#8220;Where Are Your Keys&#8221; Khelsilem helps people become fluent in their indigenous languages.  \u00a0One of the barriers to rapid fluency is a fear of &#8220;not doing it right.&#8221;  \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UQImIstZpTM\" target=\"_blank\">Khelsilem completely transforms the experience of failure by introducing the technique called &#8220;How Fascinating!&#8221;<\/a> When a person (including the facilitator) makes a mistake, the whole group celebrates by throwing their hands in the air, leaning back and declaring &#8220;How Fascinating!&#8221;  \u00a0While it might seem contrived at first, the technique opens up the body, and greets the failure with a collective celebration.  \u00a0Blame and judgement is avoided, collective support is activated and learning is grounded.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Practices like these are essential to build into the architecture of processes where failure is inevitable if innovation is to occur.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Process the grief. <\/strong>When catastrophic failure occurs it can leave people grieving, frightened and cynical.  \u00a0If there is no way to process the grief then individuals often build their next prototype out of fear.  \u00a0If you feel you have been burned before, you might develop your next idea by building in protection against failing again.  \u00a0While that can seem prudent and safe, in reality, building structures out of fear is a much riskier proposition than building structures out of possibility.  \u00a0Without processing grief, a group or a person can be susceptible to being &#8220;defended.&#8221;  \u00a0I learned much about this state from Dr. Gordon Neufeld who is a child psychologist <a href=\"http:\/\/jumpedthesynapse.blogspot.ca\/2006\/07\/getting-kids-unstuck-dr-gordon-neufeld.html\">who has described this phenomenon in children<\/a>.  \u00a0Taking a group or a person through <a href=\"http:\/\/psychcentral.com\/lib\/the-5-stages-of-loss-and-grief\/000617\">the grief cycle<\/a> using empathy, story telling and compassion can help free the emotions that are triggered in future learning experiences.<\/p>\n<p>Building a mindset to embrace failure and support the transformation of the energy of failure is critical to groups developing the capacity to lead in complexity.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve also written about failure here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=3742\">Mutations and system change<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=3656\">Dealing with the architecture of fear<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=3289\">Power, belonging and failure<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/?p=2774\">Moving from failsafe to safefail<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Innovation does not come without discarding ideas, trying and failing. \u00a0In complex systems with complex challenges, failure is inevitable and desired. \u00a0If we need to prototype to sense our way forward we have to have a mindset that can handle failure. On Saturday at the Art of Participatory Leadership in Petaluma my new friend Shawn Berry convened a session on failure and through listening to stories ranging from small prototoyping failures to business breakdowns and even deaths, I noted a few patterns that are helpful for groups and people to address failure positively nd resourcefully Frame it up. In North &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14,29,22,48,44,6,12,47,16,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciative-inquiry","category-art-of-hosting","category-collaboration","category-community","category-design","category-facilitation","category-first-nations","category-improv","category-leadership","category-learning"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piBp1-12y","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4002"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4003,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4002\/revisions\/4003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chriscorrigan.com\/parkinglot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}