Celebrate the Pivot
Having explored the growth mindset in his first article and how to make failure your friend in his second article, Jared now discusses failing fast and how teams can embrace this concept, learn and move forward.
Failure – it is possibly the single biggest fear in the workplace and in life itself. No one likes to fail. We especially do not want to fail while others are watching.
Yet all we have heard recently (especially from Silicon Valley) is that we should “Fail Fast”; “Fail Early and Often”; and even “Break Things.”
The use of the phrase “fail fast” in books and articles has increased 500% since 1995.
Failing fast – while it is a slick slogan – is easier said than done. Despite the strong advice from these very successful books that we should fail – we simply do not make failure a daily goal nor do we seek to endure repeated public failure.
Failure has a bad reputation
The reason: failure will never have a good brand name. It just won’t. We aren’t going to make the word “failure” sound inviting and beneficial, no matter how many times we put it into a catchy phrase or slogan. We’ve been conditioned and have an innate drive to avoid failure - likely a product of natural selection.
How do we adopt the behaviour to fail fast and move forward?
Well, we change the name, of course…and then we celebrate it!
Pivot: What does it mean
Why don’t we “pivot” instead? A pivot is a change of direction, a slight shift in course, a different decision we make because of past experience.
How many times can you see Pablo Picasso pivot in this time-lapse video of his painting a masterpiece? Pivots are natural and can lead to good things. Even the best have to change course, rethink their direction, make different choices, and learn from past actions.
Celebrate the pivot
Even better, we need to celebrate the pivots we make by talking about them openly as leaders and learning from them in order to make fewer pivots in the future
Celebrating the pivot openly will help to create a culture of innovation. It frees team members and colleagues to take more risks. The team makes experiments they wouldn’t have in the past, and learns from these experiments.
The good consequence is that if leaders make this a regular part of their leadership practice, it will create a culture that drives:
· Continuous innovation
· Increased motivation and engagement
· Improved strategic agility
· Elevated psychological safety and the teams willingness to take be creative and take risks
· And resilience in your people and business
How do we do this?
Spotlight the Pivot
The best way to show that pivots are possible is to show that pivots are happening today. Take 10 minutes to make this a regular part of a recurring meeting with your team. Only by consistent practice, will it become part of your team’s fiber and culture.
Study the Pivot
Learn from the quick wins that follow the pivot. What culture, mindsets and skills enabled the pivot? What will you do differently going forward?
Spread the Pivot
Encourage more pivots by acknowledging and sharing the stories and lessons of leaders who pivot. Again, make celebrating the pivot a consistent and even ritualistic practice. Without that, it will just remain a novelty and you won’t reap the innovation and creativity benefits.
Let’s not be failures, but celebrate our pivots instead. Celebrate learning, celebrate growth, and ultimately, celebrate success.