Fail Fast

I have been contemplating the business philosophy of “fail fast” recently.? This precept values trial and error, rapid feedback cycles, and iterative improvements to determine move something forward. The emphasis is not being overly focused on what isn't working, but rather cutting your losses early when things are not going your way. If something fails, no sweat! Just adapt, pivot (so trendy!), and move on. It's interesting in my research that it is not entirely clear who first coined this phrase. Some attribute this philosophy to Carol Bartz, former Yahoo! CEO, when she discussed the concept of "fail-fast forward" in a 2001 speech at Stanford. Others attribute it to business guru John C. Maxwell and his 2007 Book "Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes into Stepping Stones for Success." (Book ). His quote was, “Fail early, fail often, but always fail forward.”? David Kelley, founder of IDEO and one of the founders of the field of innovation design, added something similar: “Fail Faster, Succeed Sooner.” (Reference 1 ). ?

Regardless of who put the two words together first, fail fast is an important reminder to help us avoid the tendency of hyper analyzing problems (one of my colleagues calls this "admiring problems"), piloting solutions (slow no!), and generally taking far too long to adjust our strategies that are not working. ? It acknowledges that successfully solving complex problems is often an iterative process; we learn from our mistakes, adjust, reassess, and try different strategies that ultimately prove successful.? But it's interesting to note that as a business concept fail fast has some fairly mixed reviews; leading some experts to label it "Innovation Theatre" (Reference 2 ) or even "Silicon Valley Hype" (Reference 3 ). An older article in HBR was perhaps more balanced (Reference 4 ). Regardless of your persuasion here, we can all agree that we live in dynamic times; where the pace of change is frenetic and we all have to work hard as leaders to keep up. I think we can also agree that failure is an important teacher and leads to wisdom over time. I intrinsically understand all this, but I still struggle with this concept mostly because it includes the word "fail." Let me try to explain.

Academia is notorious for its slow, plodding, and careful nature; preferring precision and accuracy to speed.? Experts in many fields don't like to fail; one of the articles referenced above had the quote, "you are not paid to experiment, you are paid to know." Ouch! But this isn't entirely wrong related to having high standards of excellence or the need for extensive domain expertise in academic disciplines. Physicians, and other health care professionals, sadly often associate failure with personal mistakes made in patient care; with the connotation that it is a lack of your skill, competence, or moral fortitude that lead to patient harm.? While this clearly fails to acknowledge human factors and the need for rigorous systems of care to prevent said harm, the kung fu of the cultural indoctrinations in our healthcare training programs is strong around failure. Said another way, we have all to often been taught or modeled that mistakes equal failure. I remember presenting cases at Morbidity and Mortality conferences and being made to feel like I was the weakest link (i.e. a failure). I also vividly remember being questioned into submission by attending physicians when I didn’t know every single minute detail about a patient on rounds (this is profanely known to medical students everywhere as "pimp rounds").? This leaves scars.? Failure?? No thank you!? That’s fine for someone else.? Not for me.?You go first!

But this is totally unrealistic and ultimately backwards. We all fail and make mistakes no matter how smart, hardworking, or virtuous we are.? We all should desire to learn from our mistakes, so we don’t keep making them over again.? An overdeveloped sense of perfectionism leads to analysis paralysis, and simply doesn’t help us address timely needs for those we serve or care for. Ultimately, the solution here for me was to focus on the concept of experimentation rather than failure. An experiment is a scientific test in which you perform a series of actions under controlled conditions in order to test a hypothesis.? You carefully observe and record the outcome of the experiment in order to adjust your hypothesis and experiment again.? Intrinsic to experiments is the fact that most fail.? In fact, the scientific method demands this; try, fail, try again. The faster you have a result from an experiment, whether success or failure, the sooner you can adjust your hypothesis and go about your way of solving the problem at hand.? This works in science and business equally well. "Experimentation lies at the heart of every company's ability to innovate." (Reference 5 ).

Whether you want to "fail fast" or practice "enlightened experimentation," the concepts of being adaptable, learning from our mistakes, and trying new strategies to tackle challenges is timeless advice in science, healthcare, business, and even life. This may seem like a distinction without merit, but it helped me come to terms with this critical concept as a leader. Maybe it can help you too.

There is no such thing as a failed experiment, only experiments with unexpected outcomes.

• R. Buckminster Fuller

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