Failure is an error in design
We tend to personalise failure when we experience
it. For all the corporate world’s talk of failure being an
essential ingredient to success, it is seldom greeted
with the enthusiasm of a student learning a valuable
lesson. The language is often remi niscent of the
breakup speech, ‘It’s not you … it’s me!’
So instead we look to apportion blame, limit damage
and, depending on the political environment we’re
working in, find a scapegoat. That’s very much how we
build our cultures inside organisations too. So, given
that so much of what passes for strategy in the worlds
of business and personal development is fraught with
faux science, ineffective processes that fight against
human nature and systems that set us up for failure,
what do we do now? We would like to suggest that
we need to change environments and systems, not
people. Rather than ignoring or denying our foibles,
weaknesses and bad habits, we should instead be
designing our systems with them in mind.
If we assume that failure is simply part of the process
(and we should), then rather than planning for the
best-case scenario (those days when we are filled with
willpower, charisma, clarity and courage) we should
instead plan in such a way that we can be successful on
days when we are just average, middle of the road or
plain old run of the mill.
In other words, we need to design for being selfish,
scared and stupid.
Published by WILEY
International,
Selfish, Scared & Stupid
is available now in
paperback, RRP $25.95,
from all good
bookstores and online at
www.selfishscaredandstupid.com