Screwing Up
On Purpose- Testing Boundaries
Everyone is afraid of failure and equally so, everybody is afraid of
being embarrassed. Sometimes, without doing it on purpose, we set ourselves up
for such assumptions of failure and embarrassment through poor planning or the
lack of testing boundaries. What this translates to is that we all make or set
a standard or level of assumptions. Most will agree that assumptions are risky
and dictate our future as well as our own actions.
We may sabotage ourselves before we ever take the first step towards
success. For many, that is just too high of a risk to take and makes them
believe they aren’t good enough to try it so they don’t. It is that simple. They
don’t even try it. Thus, when faced with a difficult challenge or task, we must
test these boundaries set up to help us become better and learn from our
mistakes.
The late Robert Gunther in the Harvard
Business Review in 2006 said that: True deliberate mistakes are expected, on
the basis of current assumptions, to fail and not be worth the cost of the
experiment…. But if such a mistake unexpectedly succeeds… [it] creates
opportunities for profitable learning. In other words: if we fail, we learn
something. If we succeed, our long-shot risk actually paid off. By reframing
tough tasks as “deliberate mistakes” we can help remove all of the pressure
that can keep us frozen, all while learning something along the way.
Most deliberate mistakes, as expected,
don’t work out. your instinct, therefore, should be to avoid them or to minimize
the impact of such approach. On the other hand, you may be missing a great
opportunity and miss out on what you may learn from such actions. When
fundamental assumptions are wrong, people can achieve success more quickly by
deliberately making errors than by considering only data that support the
assumptions. It’s a hands-on approach that can be controlled to a large degree
and because it was an intentional mistake, the investment was low and less
costly as well as risky.
The downside of failure wasn’t that bad. Even if you took
into consideration all the dynamics involved in the failure, would have banked
crucial knowledge of what caused it or what the gaps were. Here are some hints
to make safer mistakes.
Scrutinize your assumptions
– Our innermost assumptions are the fuel for deliberate mistakes. What
are the rules you follow without thinking? Do you avoid public speaking
opportunities or leadership roles? Pick one out and think about something you
could do to put it to the test – in which the downside is low and what you will
learn is potentially very valuable. For example, if you tend to avoid
public speaking, you could volunteer to do a talk on a favorite subject at your
local library or coffee shop, and invite a friendly audience, as opposed to
trying a TED talk. This is a process we commonly call ‘breaking the ice’ and it
works well.
Be prepared to fail — Don’t
put too much stake in the outcome. You probably won’t succeed. But as long as
the cost is low and you are prepared, it won’t hurt a bit.
Do your best – This is the hard part. When you
don’t expect to succeed at something, your self-protective instincts can affect
your effort. If you don’t do your best, you effectively guarantee that you
won’t succeed – and you give yourself a flawed data set to measure against.
But, more importantly, you reduce the lessons you learn even if you fail. So,
you must, must, must do your very best to succeed.
Compare reality to assumptions
– If you fail, if the mistake proceeds as expected, you will have a list of
lessons that you gained from the experience. Which of your assumptions were
correct, and which didn’t hold up? What surprised you? Use this list to
plan your next development steps, so that the next time you venture into this
experience, you will have a much better chance to succeed.
Deliberate mistakes are an underutilized tool in our
personal growth. They are not natural and don’t arise by default. But, if
approached the right way, they can propel us forward and provide us crucial
information to guide our future development. To paraphrase Henry Ford, if you
believe you can’t do something, you’re always right.
