How to Fail Spectacularly (and what you can learn from it)

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How to Fail Spectacularly(and what you can learn
from it)

Michelle Gislason, CompassPoint Maricela
Rios-Faust, Human Options Dawn Watkins, Women's
Crisis Shelter in Southern Humboldt (WISH)
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Using maestro

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our presenters
Michelle Gislason CompassPoint
Dawn Watkins Women's Crisis Shelter in Southern
Humboldt (WISH)
Maricela Rios-Faust Human Options
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Objectives

• Increased awareness of the connection between
  failure and organizational learning
• Ability to share a failure story using a
  storytelling structure
• Identified strategies for embracing failure and
  learning from it

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• Write one word or sentence that
• describes how you feel about
• failure

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www.admittingfailure.com
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• What was the project or event?What were you
  trying to do?What was the fail/where did it go
  wrong?What would you do differently next time
  (or never do again!)?What lessons can be learned?

Source thefailcon.com
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What was the project or event? A bricks and mortar drop-in center to serve a particular community
What were you trying to do? Trying to be accessible to a client-base and demonstrate commitment to capacity building in region
What was the fail/where did it go wrong? Drop-in clientele is not our sweet spot. We confused location with presence.
What would you do differently next time (or never do again!)? Go with our gut Focus on impact, not inputs Dont be fooled by Free
What lessons can be learned? Assess different strategies Focus rigorously on what impacts we are best poised to achieve (go back to our theory of change) Trust ourselves AND listen to dissenting voices Define the limits of risk-taking and know when to say When Once decided, commit to strategy, but be prepared to admit we were wrong
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What was the project or event? ALICE
What were you trying to do? We wanted to streamline our crazy and outdated data collection methods
What was the fail/where did it go wrong? NO ONE KNEW HOW TO USE IT NO ONE KNEW THEY DIDNT KNOW HOW TO USE IT It didnt get used its still not being used Because NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO USE IT
What would you do differently next time (or never do again!)? Utilize the expertise available in the field and call upon colleagues for support. We are too busy Hire consultants if you have to do so
What lessons can be learned? If it seems easy, and it keeps being NOT easy, then you may be in over your head Dont try to cut corners when it comes to your infrastructure Dont reinvent the wheel If you give a staff person a project, and they have great difficulty in getting it done, DO NOT SET THEM UP TO FAIL by assuming they will figure it out. You may need to reevaluate, step in and start over
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What was the project or event? Sustainability Campaign
What were you trying to do? Develop a compelling message that highlighted the need for funding to sustain our programs
What was the fail/where did it go wrong? We got caught up with the idea that to raise more money you need to build new programs. Our sustainability communication was confusing. Deferring to others when we knew what we needed We committed resources to confirm what we already knew
What would you do differently next time (or never do again!)? Engage our program experts and stakeholders in critical conversations. Know when to say when Begin with the end in mind
What lessons can be learned? Begin with the end in mind- what is going to get us to a place of high mission impact? Trust ourselves AND be open to new ideas
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• What was the project or event?What were you
  trying to do?What was the fail/where did it go
  wrong?What would you do differently next time
  (or never do again!)?What lessons can be
  learned?
• - Random groups of 4-5 Introduce yourselves and
  pick a facilitator
• - 20 minutes of discussion with 4 minute wrap-up
  warning
• - Presenter may listen in
• - Press 5 if you have technical issues

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• It is impossible to live without failing at
  something, unless you live so cautiously that you
  might as well not have lived at all in which
  case, you fail by default.
• --J.K. Rowling

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• Courage allows the successful woman to failand
  learn powerful lessons-from the failure-so that
  in the end, she didn't fail at all
• -Maya Angelou

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When it Happens

• Dont overreact
• Name the failure
• Take responsibility
• Turn it into a positive learning event
• Analyze the how and why behind the failure and
  put strategies into place to turn it into a
  learning opportunity
• Listen and stay curious what happened and what
  did you learn? What will be different next time?
• Dont treat it as a cause for punishment

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All the Time

• Think experimentally and adjust
• Create a culture of sharing failures as well as
  successes
• Create a continuous learning and feedback
  mind-set
• Reward risk taking
• Dont reward
• Making repeated mistakes
• Failing to acknowledge the problem
• Failing to take corrective action
• Protect dissenting voices
• Define the limits or boundaries of risk-taking
  and failure
• As an organization open yourself up to risk
  assessment

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• Design your life to make effective use of
  failures.
• Most successful enterprises are built through a
  process of groping and adaptation, not planning.

--David Hartford, Why Success Always Starts
with Failure
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Next Steps

• Share one thing you are going to do as a
• result of this webinar

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More on Failure

• Funders
• Annie E. Caseys  New Futures program
• Bill Melinda Gates Foundation
• James Irvine Foundation
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Hard
  Lessons)
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Anthology)
• Publications
•  Joel Fleishman
• Bloggers
• Sean Stannard-Stockton
• Beth Kanter

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• The greatest glory in
• living lies not in never failing,
• but in rising every time we fail.  

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Source thefailcon.com
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thank you!
Contact info CompassPoint Nonprofit
Services michelleg_at_compasspoint.org
Evaluate this webinar https//www.research.net/s/
FailingSpectacularly