How do you learn from your failures or mistakes in innovation and productivity projects?

When it comes to innovation, there is no failure. You either get what you want, or you get what you need. Some people refer to the latter as a failure, but you should see it as a learning opportunity and a signal to pivot and try another approach.

This is the most important part really in any failure to reflect on what happened. This will give you insight to be on the lookout and proactively prevent it from making same mistake twice. Many tools like 5 Whys, SWOT, etc. They all revolve around asking relevant questions on your process and what and why caused the issue. From there you can put mechanisms in place to safeguard issue in future.

Embrace an approach of fail fast and learn early - it’s much less costly! It is key to include all perspectives on why the team think things went wrong. Diversity of perspective is powerful.

Celebrate failure! as well as success. I have seen many teams to scared of failure to try anything new or adventures. When a group tasked with finding a solution or a new way of doing things, quickly gives an answer, but can’t tell me what they tried or considered that didn’t work, I usually send them back to look again. I also like to add a wild card to a team. Someone who knows little or nothing about the subject in hand. They are often the ones that ask the simple questions that get the thought process working in the rest of the team “why do we do it like that?”, “please explain in simple terms”.

Identifying root causes in innovation and productivity projects is key to learning from failures. Here are three concise tips: 1. Spot Patterns: Look beyond isolated issues to identify recurring problems, enabling you to address systemic flaws and improve overall processes. 2. Foster Openness: Create a blame-free environment where team members can openly discuss failures. This promotes honest dialogue and collective problem-solving. 3. Actionable Insights: Turn your findings into clear, actionable strategies. Use these lessons to refine future projects, driving continuous improvement and sustainable innovation.

Establishing a platform for collecting and analyzing feedback is important. Set the platform, then encourage your teams to avoid emails, Teams chats, and various posts for submitting feedback. Post a link to the platform somewhere visible such as pinning to a chat, a channel discussion, or a SharePoint page. SharePoint Lists have an Issue Tracker template that is a great start for issues and/or feedback! Leverage Power Automate to then trigger notifications when new issues/feedback are added.

In my experience, evaluation and feedback are the most important "steps" when learning from failures. The only way to grow is to learn through failing or making mistakes. Rather than seeing failure as a roadblock, see it as another path. Your failures will give you instant feedback on what to do and what not to do. The more failures you encounter, the closer you will ultimately achieving your primary goal! I recommend having a set evaluation/review date built into your schedule. This could be weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly (or all of the above). This will help you to see where you came from, what challenges you face, and where to make the necessary adjustments!

Gather feedback from stakeholders and team members to gain multiple perspectives on what went wrong and why. Include everyone - even when it feels uncomfortable. Evaluate the feedback objectively to identify common themes and patterns. Criticism can be hard to hear. Give yourself and your team time to process and get over the sting and then evaluate how you can use what you have learned for improvement.

it’s about understanding different viewpoints and learning from them. Encourage open and honest communication. Ask questions like, “What do you think went wrong?” and “How could we have done it differently?” Evaluating this feedback helps you see the bigger picture.

I start by evaluating the feedback. Firstly, I analyze the root cause of the failure, identifying what went wrong and why. Secondly, I seek insights from peers and mentors to gain diverse perspectives on the issue. Lastly, I use this feedback to adjust my strategies, ensuring continuous improvement and alignment with my goals.

3 Tips: 1- Embrace a growth mindset: View failures as a stepping stone to success. Implementing changes allows you to turn mistakes into valuable learning opportunities, fostering resilience and adaptability. 2- Analyze and adjust: Use failures to analyze what went wrong and why. Implementing changes based on these insights can lead to improved strategies and processes, enhancing future innovation and productivity. 3- Encourage open communication: Create an environment where team members feel safe to share their failures. This openness can lead to collective learning and a more innovative approach to problem-solving and implementing changes.

Based on your root cause analysis and feedback, develop a plan to address the issues. This might mean adjusting your workflow, adopting new tools, or providing additional training for your team. Make sure everyone is on board with the changes and understands their role in the new process

I learn from my failures or mistakes in innovation and productivity projects by implementing changes that drive progress. First, I analyze what went wrong and why, focusing on understanding the root causes. Next, I adapt my strategies to address these issues, ensuring they're applicable in future projects. Finally, I consistently apply these improvements to create a more efficient and effective approach, making each project a learning opportunity for growth and success.

Coming up with ideas on how to improve or innovate is nice, but executing them is what counts. And who's more qualified to do it than the person that identified them? As they usually don't bring immediate results, they can be overlooked, but if they are acted upon immediately, they will separate you and the whole team from the others.

Develop action plans based on the insights gained from the analysis and feedback. Implement changes to processes, strategies, or systems to address the identified root causes effectively. Start small, evaluate, iterate, and refine. Be sure that actions are assigned to specific people and that there is accountability for implementation and evaluation timelines.

3 Tips: 1- Embrace the learning opportunity: View each failure as a chance to improve. Document what went wrong and why, to prevent similar issues in future testing cycles. 2- Foster open communication: Collaborate closely with your development team to understand the failure's context and jointly devise solutions to enhance the quality of the product. 3- Revise your testing strategy: Use the insights gained from the failure to refine your testing processes, ensuring a more robust approach that can better identify potential issues early on.

Pilot the changes on a small scale to assess their effectiveness before full implementation. Testing allows for adjustments and refinements based on real-world feedback, increasing the likelihood of success. I like to think of the agile method in engineering. Rather than having a plan and submitting a completed project, there are check points along the way so that pieces are tested, feedback is provided, and the project is improved at every turn.

First, I always seek to understand why a particular approach didn't work by analyzing data and feedback. This helps me identify the root cause of the issue. Second, I experiment with different solutions in controlled environments to see which one yields the best results. Lastly, I involve stakeholders early in the process to gather diverse perspectives, ensuring the solution is robust and effective. By doing so, I turn failures into valuable learning experiences that drive continuous improvement.

Ne pas hésiter à aller très vite tester sur le terrain pour récolter de feedback. Il n'y a qu'un certain niveau de réponse que l'on peut avoir par la théorie. Selon les neurosciences, ce serait même notre fa?on naturelle d'apprendre en tant qu'être humain. On parle de feedback loop. Et ?a provient de notre cognition qui est Située et Incarnée. Quand on fait quelque chose mal, notre cerveau est très bon pour détecter ce que c'est après coup. Par contre, il est très mauvais pour l'anticiper avant. D'où le fait que la fa?on la plus rapide d'apprendre est d'aller ramasser des pelles sur le terrain. Quand on cherche à créer quelque chose de génial du premier coup, notre cerveau n'a rien pour contraster — ce qui est compliqué.

Communicate the lessons learned from the failure or mistake with the team and organization. Celebrate the efforts made to learn and improve, fostering a culture that values continuous growth and innovation. Some organizations go as far as to have "Failure Parties" to normalize the idea that innovation and progress can only occur when there is some failure. These are learning opportunities that should be celebrated!

Firstly, I openly discuss my setbacks with my team to foster a culture of transparency and mutual growth, highlighting the importance of collective learning. Secondly, I celebrate the lessons learned, reinforcing that mistakes are valuable opportunities for improvement. Lastly, I use these experiences to inspire and motivate others, showing that resilience and adaptability are key to progress.

Continuous learning is a crucial element to every human. Whether you're a child, student, or seasoned CEO. The ability to keep an open mind and learn is worth its weight in gold. Those open to new ideas, opinions, and techniques will ultimately open more doors in their personal and professional lives. I love to keep learning by reading books, listening to others' opinions, and taking courses/seminars frequently.

3 Tips: 1. Embrace Failure: View failure as a springboard. Conduct after-action reviews to understand what went wrong and right. Transform your approach and amplify future success. Every failure is a rehearsal for greatness. 2. Feedback Loop: Seek and embrace feedback from your team and stakeholders. Value honest, constructive feedback to refine strategies and processes. Open dialogue improves projects and builds a resilient, adaptive team. 3. Journal Your Journey: Keep a journal of your innovation projects. Document goals, strategies, successes, and failures. Reflect regularly to identify patterns and insights. Use your journal to track progress and fuel new ideas.

Embrace a growth mindset that views failures as opportunities for learning and growth. Encourage ongoing reflection and iteration to continuously improve productivity and innovation processes. In engineering, it's common to have a retrospective (retro) after each sprint (a week or two.) Think about how that might apply to your work environment. Retros provide a continuous feedback loop that allows continuous learning and growth.