The Greatest Deterrent to Creativity -- I believe it is Fear, Fear of Failure

On June 20th, I was privileged to speak at the IFT Annual meeting. My topic was "Keeping the Pipeline Full, Because Change is Inevitable." Later in the day during an open forum discussion, the question was asked, "What is it that prevents creativity in the workplace?" My comment was immediately, "Fear, Fear of Failure." My eldest son was in the audience. It was the first time he had ever heard his father address a large group of Non-Procter & Gamble employees. His reaction to the thought was to immediately go out and purchase an additional Father's Day present. A book he had been reading titled, Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers by Robert Kreiegel. He thought it would be good reading for my trip the next week to Ireland. It was and while I agree on many of the author's points I also disagree with many. I found myself arguing with the author, which means there will be a lot of writing in the margins of the book. But the one area where I had no disagreement was in the chapter on "The No-Mistakes Cow." Following are some excerpts from that chapter.

The "no-mistakes" ethic designed to improve work practices, products and services does more harm than good. It fosters an atmosphere of caution. When people get cautious, innovation, creativity and originality go out the window. People who are afraid of making mistakes are petrified of making decisions. This leads to a manager's decision to retreat to the safety of "test it to the death." Prolonged testing and cultivating of an idea will slowly result in conservatism or the least deviation from the status quo. When failure is not penalized, people are more willing to experiment, to look for innovative new solutions, products, processes and ways to "Surprise the Customer." (I like that thought, "Surprise the Customer," not just "Customer Satisfaction.")

Following are a few quotes on the topic of failure:

Mr. Roberto Goizueta, Coca-Cola CEO, "The moment you let avoiding failure become your motivator, you're down the path of inactivity." "You can stumble only if you're moving."
Mr. Bill Gates hires people who've made mistakes. "It shows that they take risks." "The way people deal with things that go wrong is an indicator of how they deal with change."
Mr. Tom Watson, IBM Chairman, "If you want to succeed, double your failure rate."
Mr. Walter Writson, Chairman of Citicorp, "Failure is not a crime, failure to learn from it is."
Mr. Bob Stevens, retiree, "Failure is a lesson in progress."

I don't know about you but I never seem to learn by a success, but I learn a lot through failure. When mistakes are seen as a part of the learning process, they can help us rethink, re-conceptualize and re-strategize. This does not mean that all failures should be treated the same. Failures as a result of not being prepared or the result of sloppy execution should not be treated the same as failures as a result of pushing the envelope or venturing into uncharted waters.