The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #234 Embrace Failure Erik Van Slyke
Posted on 15. Apr, 2010 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Wayne Turmel knows a thing or two about failure, but that doesn’t mean he likes it. So why is Erik Van Slyke telling managers to embrace it? Because that’s where innovation and invention come from. We don’t have to like it but we do have to get used to it, it would seem. Also the last king of Jerusalem and a Romantic Poet share what they know about the topic.
Erik Van Slyke of the Solleva Group joins us to talk about failure. So why is he smiling?
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show and the ultimate irony- you’re here to succeed, so why are we insisting you learn how to fail??? That’s today’s topic and we dedicate this show to Guy de Lusignan who succeeded in failing spectacularly yet wound up with not a bad gig. Something for us all to learn from.
3:35 The quote of the week is from John Keats…. romantics dig failure, even the successful ones.
4:30 Welcome Erik Van Slyke to the show to discuss the F word. Well not THE F word, but just about as shocking. Why should we enjoy failure? Because we’re so good at it.
7:00 An important semantic difference: accepting failure isn’t the same as expecting it and coping. Expecting failure is a key component of project management. If you don’t think about what can go wrong, you’re not planning properly.
11:50 How can we get comfortable with failure when so many other people are connected and counting on us? Organizations are so complex we’re doomed to fail somewhere. It’s not being perfect, it’s being in the process of perfection.
14:20 Where is the line between striving for excellence and driving yourself crazy? Again, it’s in the process.You have to be collaboratvie- really collaborative.
16:24 Erik claims to have an actual case study where people do this without getting fired. Listen up.
19:23 A lot of people who live in the PMI world are amazed when projects go wrong. The problem isn’t planning, it’s communicating during the plan. How can we create an environment where people are comfortable talking about failure and getting into trouble? Make it safe for your team to screw up.
22:36 How do we communicate our teams’ failure to our bosses in constructive way. The trick is to admit to the problem but also offer a solution. Don’t just say “00ps”.
25:20 There is a relationship between innovation and failure. You can’t innovate without stuff going wrong. The quest for perfection will kill real creativity.
Erik’s Resources