Talk to the snail ??

To my thoughtful people leaders and managers,

May I introduce you to the best idea I’ve heard in a while?

Recently, a client sent me this picture of a cute stuffed animal snail.?This client is a director in charge of six people, and she holds a bi-weekly Thursday meeting with her team, in person.

Each meeting ends with snail fail, wins and shout-outs.

My favorite part??Snail fails.

This is when they share failures, or things that could have gone better, or can be improved upon in the future.?Then the team votes on the most “epic” failure and the snail sits on their desk until the next meeting.

These failures are often?not?big snafus: they’re the little things that can go wrong that weigh on you. An email you dropped the ball on. A presentation that could have gone better.

But because they’re using a cute snail stuffed animal, the whole thing has an air of levity to it.

Of course, sharing failure of any kind requires a level of vulnerability that isn’t always encouraged at work. Sharing failures can be really scary for people, even if they’re minor. We don’t?want?to be less than perfect, especially in workplaces where there are cultures of perfection.

I can speak to this culture personally, having worked at JetBlue, where perfection was very much valued. As an airline, safety is obviously paramount. If you made mistakes, people could get hurt. That idea permeated through the?entire?workplace, to every team.

I work with LOTS of clients who are struggling with the expectation of perfection at work. They start to believe that?everything?has to go well?all the time—which sets them up to achieve the impossible. It also leads to constant stress and vigilance against what might go wrong.

And that’s why I think the practice of sharing failures openly is so powerful and honestly a little bit revolutionary for workplaces. It’s a big weight off your shoulders, and your team’s shoulders, to know that mistakes don’t have to be shrouded in secrecy.

In fact,?research?suggests that a culture of sharing failures at work encourages innovation and problem solving and can help prevent failure down the line.

That makes sense: if you can discuss a failure openly, it allows teams to learn, collaborate on solutions, and iterate for the next time. Failure can actually be productive, but only if you’re cultivating an environment where sharing failures isn’t scary or punitive.

If you’re a leader at work, I encourage you to take a page from my client’s book and remind your team members that perfection is impossible, and mistakes are okay.

You can even get your very own?snail?or if snail fail isn't your jam?whale?fail is an option. LOL! (I’ve already sent one to a friend who mentioned she loves the idea. She works for herself, and not on a team, but the idea is the same.)

What do you think of this idea? If you implement this, or are already doing something like it, I’d love to hear from you.

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