Failure is feedback is knowledge.
Failure has a single redeeming feature, it's the only time we truly learn and grow. Use it well.
Every failure, from a small slip to a strategic loss is only worth what we extract from it. No lesson, no value. It takes candour: name what went wrong, your own part first. Everyone should be able to answer one question: what's your mechanism for learning from failure?
- 01Every project ends with a 20-minute ‘what would we do differently’. Documented.
- 02When you cock up, you tell us first. Before the client, before your team.
- 03Keep your own lessons file. Private, specific, revisited quarterly.
- 04Be ready to answer: what's the last thing you got wrong, and what did you take from it?