I haven't failed...

I have been reading a lot about failure recently, particularly with people quoting Elon Musk's statement, "if you're not failing enough, you're not innovating enough".?

Right from childhood, we are told stories of successful people. Irrespective of whichever generation you might belong to, all stories are about how various personalities have made it big and how have those achievements made them happy. Happiness is considered directly proportional to being successful.

We are taught that success brings fame, big house, luxury car, loyal friends, happy families and beautiful wife :-). Competition in school and subsequent fear of missing out on quality education from prestigious colleges doesn’t make life any better.?Lakhs of young students taste their first failure by not making it to Harvard, Stanford or IIT.

So is there a Plan B ? Is failure the end of world ? What are the best practices of how to deal with failure ??How can we transform failure to work in our favour ??

A good start would be to celebrate failure !?

Mistakes happen, and they are part of the process. How we handle the setback is the difference. Do we learn from each and come back stronger, or just do the same thing again?

"I never lose. I either win or learn." [Nelson Mandela]

People are congratulated and rewarded for achievement in personal and professional settings, which fosters a system where people may not learn from their failures. As a result, organizations no longer place a high value on innovation, and you run the risk of making the same mistakes again. The Silicon Valley mantra that?failing is a good thing?doesn’t need to stay there. This culture can be adapted to any organization with the right systems, behaviours, and structures in place and create a workplace of happier employees that just might think of your company’s next big thing.

How Failure Improves Engagement

Let's look at two examples of people or groups who were unable to achieve their goals. What’s holding them back and what will get them back on track? Depending on the circumstances, they might be penalized or awarded. If a group is penalized for an idea going poorly, odds are they won’t be too eager to pitch their next one. If unfit innovations are met with reward, that is unpacking them to find what might work rather than throwing something away entirely, people will feel valued and motivated to figure out what innovation could work. A workforce that feels they are trusted to go for the big ideas and reach for new heights will be more confident to fall- because they know their leaders will catch them.

Companies are more likely to innovate if they provide an environment that encourages risk-taking and compensates people for trying out new approaches, even if they don't work. It takes a lot of work to learn from mistakes, and admitting defeat isn’t easy for most people. So, motivate your employees to take calculated risks by rewarding those who fail.Consider a failure event as a tragedy and use this event as a means to spark something great inside us.

So,

“If there's one piece of advice I can give you about how to promote innovation, I'm going to say go today, tomorrow, and reward failure.”?You need to realize that not everything you attempt will be a resounding success. Failure is a by product of innovation, so it should not be something that is punished as not to diminish risk-taking and the spawning of new ideas”

So next time when you encounter disappointment and failure. Share it ! Celebrate it !?Overcome it !