The UK can have a difficult relationship with failure. In America, many entrepreneurs have tales of bankruptcy and failure.
There, a ‘serial entrepreneur’ can often be a ‘serial failure’, someone who keeps trying until they strike gold. In the UK, our relationship with failure can be more complex.
We are a culture that too often remains buttoned up about it, embarrassed to share when something hasn’t worked. This can stunt Brits’ entrepreneurial intent and risk appetite.
However, the problem doesn’t only concern would-be founders. Britain’s relationship with failure impacts all of us in everyday work-life. In many organisations, employees can feel a pressure to present everything they do as a success.
Failure is seen as a sign of poor performance, and so it is covered up, honesty and reflection disincentivised. Yet an employee that never fails is, counterintuitively, failing: they are either refusing to take educated risks, or lying.
Every entrepreneur, every employee, every person, should fail at some point. Without failure, it is impossible for new ideas or new businesses to grow. Failure, however, should never be a goal or even an end point. Instead, it needs to be accepted as part of a journey.
Analysis
When failure happens, it is essential that it is analysed. Each failure is a rare opportunity to understand whether there is a gap with internal abilities, a misperception of the market or some other factor that has led to things going wrong.
Depending on the failure, this can be achieved in a variety of ways. If a product has failed, ask consumers about what it lacked. If a marketing campaign has fizzled out, see if you can speak to a marketer from outside of your business for their perspective. Consider why a competitor’s approach might have worked and yours failed.
Once this analysis has taken place, it’s vital to then share learnings across relevant teams and, ideally, the wider business. Most companies have all-hands meetings or calls, yet too often these resemble pep rallies: big motivational events which put a positive spin on everything.
That’s not helpful. In addition to sharing success, these all company events should be a chance to talk openly and intelligently about what has not worked.
Leadership
This cultural acceptance of failure requires leadership. Those at the top need to be open about their own failures and show vulnerability, a quality that shows empathy and helps leaders engage their employees.
Leaders also need to think critically about their own perceptions when judging employees: who deserves promotion, the seemingly always successful ‘superstar’ or the open and honest employee who succeeds, fails and, most importantly, tries?
Failures can be slow moving, they don’t necessarily bring a crisis or panic. For instance, at Wise we had a stated aim for our Business product to not only help small- and medium-sized businesses transfer money, but to do all the other aspects of their international banking.
We built slick products and services for this, from expense cards to multi-currency accounts, but we found that most people were still just using one service, money transfers. Given the amount of resource put into developing our Business product, this was a failure.
Valuable skill
So, we got to work. We spoke to customers for their thoughts, looked at what others were doing and had honest, open conversations internally. We then set about trying to change things. We changed the way we speak about the product, updated websites and blogs, tried to inform others through word of mouth – but, most importantly, we looked at our product.
We found that users found the design confusing, that it was unclear what other services existed. We listened and worked hard to design something better and easier to navigate – what we call a ‘launchpad’. Now, we’re seeing if it works. If it doesn’t, we’ll be honest with ourselves and try again.
Failure, of course, should never be an objective. But it has to be accepted as a part of success. An autonomous, free culture allows staff to take educated risks and to analyse and be honest about their own and their team’s work. Still, none of us are taught to fail.
We are graded, examined and judged on our success. Yet learning to fail is a valuable skill and an important part of any successful business culture. To thrive, we all need to get better at failing.