Failure
Most of us can remember the loneliness of walking back from home-plate after having struck out at bat. Not too good a feeling. Slowly, however, it dawns on us that there might be an explanation. Batting averages for the best batters average, maybe, .325 or so. For every ten times at bat, you can expect to strike out more than six times. Now things are starting to look better. What to do? Practice seemed to be one of the suggestions. Keep going up to the plate. Keep swinging. You will start to have more and more successes. Now, in a business environment, is practicing good enough?
Having a look at what went wrong - or right - might be in order. Failures seem to get more attention, but understanding why you made that first sale to IBM might help you make that crucial second sale. Folks have to want to take the time to look at their processes. Learning cultures (Edmondson, 51) examine their decisions to see which ones could have been made differently so next time goes better. Figuring out that something went wrong is the first step; analyzing it is the next. Experimenting to see if making simple changes will help outcomes is third.
These steps - detecting, analyzing, experimenting - ultimately lead to more successes. In some environments, perfection is the goal. In others, perfection is only a dream. Knowing, however, what went right or wrong in both perfect and less perfect environments still makes sense.
Reference
Edmondson, Amy C. Strategies For Learning From Failure. Harvard Business Review. April 2011. 49-55.