Failing. Well.

I talked on my podcast with Amy Edmondson. The inventor of the term, psychological safety. And, of course, the author of the seminal work on the topic – "The Fearless Organisation". What a sensational conversation.

A quick refresher. Psychological safety is the belief that you won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. The research is clear. Psychologically safe teams outperform those that aren't.

Learning from Failure.

The sharp end of psychological safety is how an organisation deals with failure.

In an early job I worked for HP. Back in the rapid growth days of consumer computing. I ran a region of big box retailers. We had no heritage of selling through big box retail, and the retailers had no heritage of selling computers. So we were all experimenting all the time. I did a deal. An experimental deal. Which involved an exclusive for the entry price point in a chain, in exchange for a marketing rebate. I didn't instruct the backend to account for the rebate. Because I didn't expect it to be the runaway success it became. When, at the end of the year, the retailer went to claim the rebate we had a 7 figure hole in our numbers.

I did what any young manager does in this situation. I sat on my hands. Told no-one for three days. Barely slept or ate. But what happened next had such a lasting impact on the way I think about work.

I plucked up the courage. I told my boss, James. And despite his obvious shock, his reply was. "This is no-longer a Mike Carden problem. This is an HP problem." He basically reminded me of the implicit limitation of liability in work. We then set about working out how we could deal with the challenge in front of us.

Then, as everything settled down, he said. "So what have we learnt". I've emphasised the "we". Because James realised that this was not about improvement for one person, or righting a wrong. But rather, this was about using that failure to improve the org.

Right Kind of Wrong

Amy's new book is out this month. "Right Kind of Wrong, the Science of Failing Well". It's a gripping read, full of wonderful story telling. But also. It takes a scientific look at something that we all suspect – that how an organisation deals with failure, has an oversized impact on success.

I won't take anything away from the book or the podcast. Check them both out.