Page 3 - Inside-Access-March_4th_Edition

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Strategies for
Learning from Failure
Analysing Failure
Once a failure has been detected, it's essential to go beyond the obvious and superficial reasons to understand the root causes. This requires the discipline—better yet, the enthusiasm—to use sophisticated analysis to ensure that the right lessons are learned and the right remedies are employed. The job of leaders is to see that their organizations don't just move on after a failure but stop to dig in and discover the wisdom contained in it.
Why is failure analysis often short-changed? Because examining our failures in depth is emotionally unpleasant and can chip away at our self-esteem. Left to our own devices, most of us will speed through or avoid failure analysis altogether. Another reason is that analysing organizational failures requires inquiry and openness, patience, and a tolerance for causal ambiguity. Yet managers typically admire and are rewarded for decisiveness, efficiency, and action—not thoughtful reflection. That is why the right culture is so important.
The challenge is
more than
emotional; it's
cognitive, too.
Even without
meaning to, we
all favour
evidence that
supports our
existing beliefs
rather than
alternative
explanations. We also
tend to downplay our responsibility and place undue blame on external
or situational factors when we fail, only to do the
reverse when assessing the failures of others—a psychological trap known as fundamental attribution error.
Complex failures in particular are the result of multiple events that occurred in different departments or disciplines or at different levels of the organization. Understanding what happened and how to prevent it from happening again requires detailed, team-based discussion and analysis only then does this failure become a lesson and pillar on which an organisation can continue to grow.
Contributed by Oye Jolaoso
PAGE 3 INSIDE ACCESS | MARCH 2021 4TH EDITION