Tesse Akpeki shows how failure forums can be a novel way to channel success.
Learning from failures is challenging and an extremely useful discipline. Understandably, when failure becomes the focus for reflection, learning can be difficult. Failure can puncture deeply held beliefs about what works and what does not. Some organisations may see that admitting failure dents their reputation and ignore weaknesses in the hope they will go away. Disappointing results are not addressed early, creating a vicious cycle which spirals down. The significance of poor results grows and it becomes more and more difficult to bring them into the light. There is another way of dealing with these difficult situations. Decisions that have led to worse than expected results can be disclosed, and the decisions and actions can be learned from and adjusted accordingly.
Sadly, there can be a tendency to “fix” a failure by tossing out the “failed” approach and replacing it with another. This is a dangerous approach as it can be the classic situation where the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. An alternative approach is to explore the reason for the failure. It may not be the approach, but the execution of it that lead to the result. Taking this on board can be a vital lesson for the organisation to learn. The answer? Creating an environment where the board, staff and volunteers can reflect on what it was about the situation that made one approach work better than another, or what else might have contributed to the failure, and forming a hypothesis about which approaches work in which situations – to build the organisational tool box.
Some organisations have utilised the approach of Before Action Reviews (BAR) and After Action Reviews (AAR). These are a simple discipline which may speed up the learning cycle. BARs help individuals involved to remind themselves before walking into action about the intended short-and longer-term outcomes and what their thinking is about what it will take to get there. AARs help them briefly but deliberately to reflect just after an activity about whether their thinking and actions moved them toward their intended outcomes and what they intend to sustain or improve through the next set of actions.
A powerful way to learn from either a success or a failure is to compare it with other similar situations to discover more robust insights. Using comparisons relieves the pressure on learning from a single painful failure. Why did this approach work her and not there? Where there similar reasons why these two services failed? Why did this approach work here and not there? Did these two reasons fail or succeed for different reasons? If so, what should we really learn from them? What patterns are emerging from the reflective practice? Another interesting development is holding “failure forums”. These are meetings to talk explicitly about the failures and what has been learned from them. The forums create safety in numbers. If everyone else is expected to talk about their failures, it becomes easier to share ones own. In the process, participants can use comparison to strengthen their insights about their own failures. If done in a safe, trusting environment where decisions and actions can be reflected on openly, reflection can help uncover deeper insights that strengthen rather than weaken the organisation.
