When Failure Is An Option

On April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 launched from Kennedy Space Center on what would be a historic mission. For those old enough to remember those events of 54 years ago, and others who know about Apollo 13’s fateful mission from the 1995 movie, two days after takeoff, an oxygen tank exploded, and the command module began losing power. Ms. Lovell plays a central role in the movie as the wife and mother of four small children, helplessly watching the television news and praying that her husband made it back safely.

As we know now, the story has a happy ending. Thanks to the ingenuity and determination of NASA engineers, the crew returned to Earth safely. Their efforts are memorialized in the famous line attributed to NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, “Failure is not an option”.

In the case of Apollo 13, failure was not an option. This holds in other professions (e.g., firefighter, airplane pilot). Thankfully most of us are not in jobs where our actions result in life-and-death consequences. Yet too often, we act as if they are, to the point we avoid risking failure at all costs.

Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson presents a different hypothesis: what about embracing failure as part of taking calculated risks? Edmondson refers to this as “intelligent failure” in her 2023 book, Right Kind of Wrong: The Science of Failing Well. Edmondson contends that “if you are not regularly failing intelligently, then you probably are not operating at your full potential”. Edmondson identifies four factors that characterize intelligent failure:

? The experiment takes place in new territory – think of this as the opposite of the saying, “But we’ve always done it this way”. Remember that everything we provide today to our members and customers is something that once upon a time was new and different. So be ready to try something that breaks new ground, appreciating this also means there’s no direction manual or guidebook to lead you forward.

? The initiative presents a credible opportunity to advance toward a desired goal – remember this is about failing intelligently. Your idea must be thought out and intentional and provide a significant reward if successful. Trying things that are pointless just to say you tried them is a waste of time and resources in the short term and lessens your long-term credibility and stakeholder support (board, staff, members) to try new things in the future.

? The experiment is hypothesis-driven, i.e., it's informed by present knowledge – while you may not have the playbook for your new idea, you can and must take what knowledge you do have to develop a scientifically-based hypothesis, i.e., your experiment can be tested, measured, and repeated. It’s the difference between cooking using a recipe and cooking by instinct (“a little bit of this, a little bit of that”). Both may work, but it is the first one you know can be duplicated with similar results.

? The failure is as small as possible to produce the desired insights – while some level of failure can be accepted, it should be based on acceptable risk. As Edmondson says, “Nobody wants a bigger failure than necessary.” Pilot projects are a great tool, allowing you to test your hypothesis on a smaller scale while minimizing risk.

Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb, phonograph, x-ray, and more, is credited with 1,093 patents. Edison was remarkable for his unending curiosity and drive to make things that were new and different, but what also distinguished him as an inventor was his appreciation that to be successful, one had to be comfortable with failing multiple times. Or as he preferred to put it, “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.” In your professional and personal journeys, embrace intelligent failure to explore new possibilities, to test what can be, and to continually ask, “Why not” instead of “Why.”