Don’t Let Fear of Failure Stifle Risk-Taking

Should have. Would have. Could have but didn’t. These are sad words. This is opportunity not seized. This is potential left untapped. This is a career--or worse, a life--unfulfilled.

Venturing into uncharted territory is scary. Making ourselves vulnerable to failure is not easy.

Yet, in order to create, to progress, to fulfill our potential, we need to take risks.

Is success defined as the absence of failure? Or is failure compatible with, a necessary ingredient of, success? Can we fulfill our potential by just staying with what is known, what we are comfortable with?

Imagine a friend of ours, Jack, is just learning to ski. After a day on the slopes, Jack exclaims, “I had a great day. I did not fall once.” Perhaps Jack did have a great day skiing. But if he did not fall at least once, do you think that Jack could have been too conservative? Do you think he progressed at a rate that reflects his capability? Do you think Jack can achieve his skiing potential with a goal simply of not falling, not “failing”?

Fulfilling our potential means pushing ourselves, testing our limits. It means moving outside our comfort zones and making ourselves vulnerable to failure. It means taking risks.

Our rapidly changing environment requires trying new things and taking risks. Technological innovations are creating jobs we never imagined possible a few years ago, while making other jobs obsolete.

An increasingly diverse population poses both business opportunities and challenges.

Fierce competition continues to force downsizing and a continual search for higher productivity.

Sure, change is risky--but not changing is also hazardous.

Despite the desire to change and develop, some environments make it hard to do so. They stifle risk-taking. These are environments where change is not embraced and failure is viewed as bad and not as an opportunity to learn. These are environments that have an “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” mentality. And these are environments that punish mistakes, yet wonder why they can’t innovate or change.

Have you seen a failure occur, observe employees get punished and then see the same problems occur again and again and again? The repetition doesn’t necessarily happen in the same area of the company, or by the same employees, or even in the same year. But repeat they do.

It is an unhealthy organization that wastes the costs of failure. An investment is made, but no return is realized. Since this organization is not learning from its failures, it does not see the value of risk-taking. And as a consequence, risk-taking is probably stifled.

As managers, we need to create an environment where our employees feel comfortable with, if not encouraged about, taking risks. As employees, we need the courage to take risks and anticipate resistance to the changes we initiate. And we need the wisdom to use our failures as experiences to strengthen ourselves and our organizations--and not as evidence of inadequacy or defeat.

Learning from failure is also vital. Have you ever seen an employee make a mistake and see the organization support that person and use that mistake to become stronger, implementing changes and training so as to avoid the repetition of this failure? This is an organization that does not waste the costs of failure. This is an organization that views failure as an investment and, by doing so, creates an innovative learning environment.

An organization cannot succeed, however, if major failures occur all the time. Clearly there are limits to the number and magnitude of failures an organization can afford in a given period. As in baseball, we cannot expect a 1.000 batting average. Yet, we also cannot afford a .300 batting average (great in baseball but not in business).

What can be done to improve the quality of our risk-taking? By preparing--whether it is talking with those who have done something similar, planning or strengthening our mental and physical fitness--we can transform an initiative that others view as very risky into one that has manageable risk.

Start with smaller, less complex risks. This might simply be voicing your opinions in meetings or assuming new tasks that utilize your existing skills and are extensions of your current assignments. This initial experience in risk-taking will provide a foundation for taking on larger, more complex risks.

In addition, communication between employee and manager is critical to successful risk-taking. By discussing ideas in advance, we enable supervisors to better manage the timing of taking on risks as well as the total risk exposure to their organizations.

Risk-taking is shared with the organization and, as a result, is not solely borne by the innovating individual. Once implementation begins, periodic reporting on progress sustains the sharing of risk by facilitating a supervisor’s ability to manage. And when the inevitable surprises occur, timely and forthright discussion with the manager is essential.

We will make mistakes, if not experience failure, as we seek to achieve our potential. The key is to learn from our mistakes and not let our fear of failure stifle our development.

We enlarge our potential by pushing into uncharted territory. We learn things about ourselves. We gain different experiences. We develop new skills. Through taking risks, we grow.

Let’s support those who risk, fail and learn. Let’s nurture a supportive, learning organization where innovation thrives, growth flourishes and risk-taking is embraced. Let each of us establish a common goal of being able to say, “Could have, would have, should have--and did.”