Some Perspectives on Success and Failure

The context in which any given outcome is considered to be a success or a failure is some prior agreed on set of values, operating principles, commitments or goals (“intentions”). Conversations for success and failure are only likely to occur, are only valid and useful, in the context of “intentions”. The corollary is that if there is no conversation for success and failure then it follows that there is no particular intention being prosecuted.

1. When the allotted time for a particular "project" has elapsed, or the allocated resources are used up, we either realized our “intention(s)”, or we did not realize them. When the “intention” is unequivocally articulated there is no ambiguity about whether to declare the outcome consistent with “intentions” (a success) or inconsistent with “intentions” (a failure).
2. The fuzziness that often exists around “intentions” makes it is possible to avoid acknowledging and confronting failure. We have been trained to see failure as bad, wrong, career limiting and to be avoided. We have not been trained to see failure as an access to learning, discovery, growth and development. Or, as Charles F. Kettering put it, "Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success." (Ex GM and founder of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research)
3. Mostly our relationship with success is weak. We have not been trained to acknowledge and celebrate success. We speak about the power of learning organizations yet we do not dissect successes for the insights they contain. As a consequence we do not make the design of success readily available to all – in effect miss the learning opportunities.
4. It is useful to have the view that an organization is “a set of promises to a set of constituencies”: shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers and so on. Some of these promises are explicit – in value statements, contracts, budgets, accountability statements and so on. Some of the promises (most) are implicit – given by precedent, the nature of the business, stakeholder expectations and so on. Keeping promises, or delivering more than promised, is success; failing to keep promises (or delivering less than promised) is failure. Stakeholders are thrilled with performance when promises are kept, and upset when in their view promises (explicit or implicit) are broken.
   
5. It is essential to acknowledge success, and in doing so, distinguish “what worked”, so that behaviors and practices can be shared and reliably replicated.
   
6. It is equally essential that failure be acknowledged. Example: we said we would do X in Y time with Z resources - we did not do that, we failed. In an “after action review” we can learn from the failure, (see separate notes on this practice). Learnings from these reviews need to be shared so as to alter behaviors and initiate new practices.
   

Some Useful Practices

1. At regular intervals - at least once a month - review performance against key milestones: a) What were our intentions: review metrics and milestones (KPI's)? b) What happened: - the facts only, "we said we would do X; we did X+, we succeeded; or, we said we would do X, we did X-, we failed." c) Do an after action review, d) Acknowledge and appreciate individuals and teams for the outcomes they have produced and their ways of being that are consistent with intentions.
2. From what is learned doing after action performance reviews, check: a) what existing practices must not be dropped - they are critical to success? b) Do any existing practices need to be changed? c) Do new practices need to be established? d) Are any practices either redundant or even thwart intentions and need to be removed? e) Decide who is going to do what, by when, to improve practices.