How Do You Respond to Failures?

I am fortunate to be spending several days in Union Pier, MI, with three of my siblings and their spouses. We have rented a lake house and are celebrating an early Thanksgiving.

Wednesday, after unpacking, I headed to the fire pit, wanting to have cocktails outside, with family gathered around the fire in the beautiful fall weather. My first attempt at building the fire was a disaster—and I am a pretty darn good fire builder.

I had to take a step back and assess the situation. What happened? Why did a match, plus wood, plus a fire starter, and some paper not result in a roaring bonfire, but a thin trial of smoke that died out?

Upon assessment, I realized that the firewood was wetter than I had anticipated, and there was very little kindling available. I was trying to start a fire with large, wet pieces of wood. That will not work.

So, I learned something. I made some adjustments. My first attempt was not a failure, but an opportunity to learn. I found some pine cones and used those as kindling. Wow! What a difference. The fire was a success and we sat around it for two hours.

In our organization’s programs, how often do things not go right and outcomes are not what we thought they would be? When things don’t go right, what do you do? How do you react?

We must recognize that “go right,” is the wrong framework for us to adopt in these situations. We need to reframe the question into one of expectations and learning: “Why did this program not meet our expectations?” "Were our expectations and predictions realistic, given the conditions in which we were working, resources available, etc?" and "What can we learn from all of this?"

The fact is, programs produce results that are “right” for the conditions in which they operate. That thin trail of smoke that died out was the inevitable result, given the large pieces of wet wood. My expectations were out of whack, given the environment and the resources at hand.

When we encounter “failures” in our programs, we must realize that what happened wasn’t a failure in itself. Our expectations of the outcomes were not in line with all of the different factors that impacted program operations and implementation.

Funders, boards, and staff need to understand this.

The bottom line is that the program did not fail. We can learn from the situation, and any opportunity to learn is an opportunity to celebrate. We need to take a step back and assess. We can try again, given what we have learned, and adjust our expectations, maybe change the context where we can. However, If we do not take advantage of learning opportunities, then we are not holding ourselves accountable and are failing to lead.

We would be walking away from that fire pit.