Celebrating Failure
How do we create a culture in which failure is seen as an opportunity to learn new insights? This question was posed by Lisa Greenwood, President & CEO of Texas Methodist Foundation, in her insightful video exploring Edwin Friedman’s notion of imaginative gridlock.
As leaders and as coaches of leaders, we can miss powerful learning opportunities when we do not explore the lessons learned from failure. The journey of personal transformation often demands that we push the boundaries of our comfort zones. Clients and leaders under our care navigate a delicate balance between stretching their limits and avoiding overextension, facing the risk of either failure on the one hand or missed opportunities on the other. Yet every experience offers invaluable lessons for growth regardless of outcome. “In order to make significant changes in their lives, clients often have to go to the edge of their ability or capacity. Sometimes they go too far and fail; sometimes they don’t go far enough and fail by missing the opportunity. Whether a person fails or succeeds, one of the underlying goals is always to look at the learning that results from the experience.” (Co-Active Coaching, Henry Kimsey-House et al, 3rd edition)
I recently listened to a podcast in which Parker Palmer talked about the role of failure in what he called his “zig zagging” vocational path: “As every scientist knows, the great thing about an experiment is that you learn something whether the experiment succeeds or fails. In fact, a lot of scientists will say you learn more from a failed experiment than from one that succeeds. I think this is what I was doing as I experimented with my vocation.”
If we are to innovate and adapt as leaders, we are invited to frame our endeavors as experiments. We are challenged to welcome the risk and vulnerability of an entrepreneur. We cannot discover the edge of our abilities without chancing failure.
Furthermore, our failures are not signs of weakness, as we sometimes think, but rather opportunities for profound transformation. Author Gerald May insists that failure is not merely a helpful learning opportunity but a theological necessity. “I think our failure is necessary, for it is in failure and helplessness that we can most honestly and completely turn to grace.”
In my experience, turning to grace is yeast that leavens the whole loaf.
I invite you to ponder your relationship with failure in your life and work, especially as you lead, coach, manage and mentor others. Here are some questions for reflection:
How do you typically respond to failure and moments of helplessness?
Have there been times when you’ve experienced grace in the midst of failure? What did that look like?
How can we cultivate a mindset that sees failure as a gateway to growth and spiritual renewal?
What practices or rituals might help you turn to learning and grace during challenging times?
How do we create a culture in which we literally celebrate failure as an opportunity for learning and transformation?
I can do this for others in coaching. In my personal life and work, I am a work in progress. Join me in the practice of celebrating failure.
Walking with you,
Vicki