Nielsen research suggests that “about two out of every three products are destined to fail.” However , outside of the startup community this is rarely acknowledged and hardly ever promoted. In the public sector , where projects take years rather than weeks, and pilots become mainstream services without any evaluation – things are worse.
Nothing fails.
Everything is a success.
If you doubt me on this pick any organisation and take a look at their annual review or report. See if you can find any mention of the things they did that failed – and what they learned as a result. We are afraid of failing and it’s seriously constraining our creativity – and ultimately our credibility.
So could we legitimise failure by laughing about it?
Well last week Ian Wright and his Disruptive Innovators Network put that to the test at The Comedy Store Leicester Square.
Maff Potts reminded us to put any failure in its proper perspective - no-one is a failure as long as you’ve got friends.
The very best innovators always fail. Remember when everyone thought Google+ was going to be the new Facebook? Even Google admitted that 90% of Google+ sessions ended in seconds - it was that boring. And then there was Glass…
When you start normalising failure you may start to realise something: we are a culture which worships success and that isn’t healthy for anybody. You are going to fail sometimes.
As well as being good for our mental health, the insights and new pathways gained through the experience of failure are as important as those achieved through what is perceived as success.
Sam West outlined some of he failed products that companies would like to forget.. a curious Colgate-branded beef lasagna frozen dinner… baby food maker Gerber's food for adults meant to be eaten out of the jar… and the famous zero-calorie fat substitute, Olestra, that gave people diarrhoea.
A great day, and a reminder that whatever they teach you at work… failure IS an option.