There’s a misunderstanding in the way many organizations embrace a fail-fast to succeed-sooner culture. All too often it’s used to justify speedy, under-informed decision making, just good-enough deliverables and products, and missed performance expectations; when in fact the true purpose of a fail-fast to succeed-sooner culture is to foster innovation by giving investment to ideas that may push the bar further while reducing their inherent risk.

Innovation is important

The idea of the fail-fast to succeed-sooner culture came from the startup world at a time when innovation was driving dramatic change in the way people received information, interacted with products and services and communicated with one another. Today the pace of innovation hasn’t changed; most organizations are going through some form of disruption to the status quo, but companies need to embrace the right fail-fast to succeed-sooner culture to ensure that they are not allowing the mantra to be a justification for mediocrity.

Failure is Important

Failure is an important part of the innovation process, though many people fear failure as the pressure to succeed is so intense. In many cases it drives people to create shortcuts to prove success and an illusion of viability rather than focusing on the metrics that truly drive business results forward.

Embracing the right fail-first to succeed-sooner culture requires that the teams involved are working in an honest an open environment. It requires courage and support from management and patience in the face of adversity. Because of this it is very rare that companies truly create the right culture.

5 Factors to success

A true fail-fast to succeed-sooner culture embraces experimentation; learning from mistakes while capitalizing on successes, focusing on long term goals and performance gains.

This requires that:

1. Leadership is delivering a vision that all projects can be measured against
2. Projects should follow a well understood methodology that allows for measurement
3. No one project is so crucial to the long term vision that the entire success or failure of that vision rest solely on that one project
4. Teams are given the opportunity to evaluate and change projects on a regular basis
5. Both successes and failure are truly celebrated

Conclusion

The speed of innovation is not going to decrease and because of this failure is inevitable. Embracing a true fail-fast to succeed-sooner culture requires that teams work in an open and honest environment focusing on a long-term vision. It requires that teams adjust their expectations that mediocrity is an acceptable reason for failure and that the greatest successes come from experimentation with a purpose.