Idea 10 - How to take risks at work and still be happy
In 1964, Thomas John Watson Sr., the CEO of IBM, famously said:
“Recently, I was asked if I was going to fire an employee who made a mistake that cost the company $600,000. No, I replied, I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want somebody to hire his experience?”
In 2024, Apple quietly shut down their electric car division and re-assigned all the engineers to other projects. They had “wasted” $1 Billion on something that never made them a cent. No-one got sacked and no-one got blamed for the “failure”.
Why are Apple’s and IBM’s responses to these “failures” so important?
Imagine you work on a production line and one of your colleagues, Steve, has an idea to improve productivity. You discuss it in your team, your line manager approves it, and you try it out. At the end of the day, his idea doesn’t work out, and your team only produces 80 items instead of the usual 100. The Big Boss comes down from his corner office and asks your line manager why productivity has dropped, your line manager blames Steve, and Steve gets a dressing down from the Big Boss. No-one from your team ever suggests anything again.
When Thomas John Watson Sr. said that he wouldn’t sack that employee, he was communicating to the whole company that it’s OK to take intelligent risks; it’s OK to try to innovate; you won’t be punished if it doesn’t work out how you expect.
Fail fast, fail often
Amazon, Facebook, Google; they all follow this mantra, and it’s probably one of the reasons they are so successful; their teams are fearless.
At this point, I want to point out that being fearless doesn’t mean being reckless or dangerous. It means you are not afraid to try new things. As Amy Edmondson says “fail intelligently”
How can you create an environment where people feel safe trying new things?
It’s all to do with psychological safety. If you feel your ideas will be welcomed, if you know you are not going to be criticised if your suggestion doesn’t go to plan, you will feel much more comfortable taking that risk and making a suggestion in front of the team.
If every time you have an idea your line manager shoots it down, or every time you try something and it goes wrong you are reprimanded, you are much less likely to try anything new. It’s basic self-preservation.
How do you create a no-blame culture?
It starts with the management team modelling the behaviour they want. IBM and Apple showed the rest of the company, it’s ok to try things; if you do, you’ll be rewarded.
However, modelling alone is sometimes not enough, and your team may need a nudge in the right direction.
If a project hasn't gone to plan and you feel the next meeting will be a big blamefest as people try to protect their own reputations, if you feel one member of your team has a habit of trying to deflect responsibility onto others, a useful tool to use is the “retrospective prime directive”. It’s just a statement, but if read out before any meeting where they may be conflict, it can really help re-wire a team that tends towards blaming each other.
“Regardless of what we discover, we understand and truly believe that everyone did the best job they could, given what they knew at the time, their skills and abilities, the resources available, and the situation at hand.”
Tip of the week
If you are in a team where they tend to blame each other when things go wrong, if you have a project that hasn’t gone to plan and your team is not sticking together, in your next meeting read out the Prime Directive before you start. It may take time for some teams to change, but over time you can help people feel safer taking (intelligent) risks.
Feeling safe to fail and not worrying about being blamed helps you feel safe at work and fulfils your human need for safety and security.
Useful links
Amy Edmondson - Fail intelligently
If you’re new to the blog I recommend reading the first article in the series - what makes people happy at work. This will give you an overview of the basics of happiness in the workplace and the areas you need to address when looking at workplace wellbeing.
Next week … A simple question you can ask yourself to find out if you feel you have a future in your current job.
Follow the blog
I regularly write on how you can use the science of happiness and the science of wellbeing to improve team performance. Sign up now to receive the latest blog posts in your inbox.
