Hurt, Didn’t It? Six Skills to Master the Creative Process
NEW BOOK GIVEAWAY!!
20 copies available!!
Leave a comment on this guest post by Jeff DeGraff to become eligible for one of 20 complimentary copies of his new book, The Creative Mindset: Mastering the Six Steps that Empower Innovation.
(Deadline for eligibility is 10/4/2020. International winners will receive electronic versions.)
My mom and dad had different parenting styles. My mother admonished me anytime I tried something uncertain and perceived as potentially dangerous.
On the other hand, my father watched as my risky behavior brought skinned knees, bruises, and stitches. As he helped me back to my feet, he would simply say, “Hurt, didn’t it?”
Risky behaviors improve creative skills.
Failure cycle:
All skills go through the failure cycle.
For example, if you’re learning to play a new instrument, it doesn’t matter if you are eight or eighty. You are going to experience the failure cycle.
Most people get stuck in the planning process. You know, the meeting about the meeting. They chance little and create less.
Artists and entrepreneurs understand the creative process is iterative. It requires a series of prototypes to prove the concept.
Failure unleashes creativity.
The first draft of the novel. The failed restaurant before the successful one. In these preliminary steps, creativity is unleashed and becomes manifested as something better or new. It reveals what works, and more importantly, what doesn’t.
Six skills to master the creative process:
- Clarify: Getting the challenge right
- Replicate: Mimicking and reapplying ideas
- Elaborate: Multiplying ideas by adding new ones
- Associate: Connecting ideas with analogies
- Translate: Creating stories from ideas
- Evaluate: Selecting the best ideas
Think of these skills like the tools in a toolbox – hammer, wrench, screwdriver, etc. They are all essential, but not interchangeable. Each has a different function in the act of creation.
Hurt, didn’t it:
Anyone can develop creativity skills through a see-one—do-one process. It requires that we try new things and accelerate the failure cycle. Take a deep breath and rapidly work through those “Hurt, didn’t it?” moments, and then move onward with new confidence and skills.
How might leaders accelerate the failure cycle for teams or individuals?
Jeff DeGraff is a Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and the founder of the Innovatrium Institute for Innovation. He is the author of several books, including the bestseller The Innovation Code, and his most recent, The Creative Mindset: Mastering the Six Steps that Empower Innovation.
I am all about having a growth mindset! I am intrigued to learn more about the creative mindset and empowerment!
“Most people get stuck in the planning process”. That’s me! When is it getting stuck and when is it clarifying? I want to read about Clarify: Getting the challenge right.
The “hurt, didn’t it?” phrase is great! I push folks to look at failures as stepping stones and not obstacles so this is very relatable. Thanks for sharing!
It is always amazing where a creative idea may come from! For me (if I am lucky), one thought leads to another, and another; before long it snowballs and I end up in a place with an idea far from where I thought would end up. If I am not lucky, I found just walking away and reproaching later works wonders (take time to sharpen the saw… thanks Stephen Covey)! This sounds like an amazing book! I would love a copy of Jeff’s book 🙂
Such a good post and a healthy reminder to not avoid failure, but to embrace it. I once heard it said that failure isn’t final unless you let it be. We’ve all heard the saying fall down 7 times & stand up 8! Remembering that failure (I
in the right context and learned from properly) has the potential to be a catalyst for success!
Great post!
Great article and love the acronym. ps. Your dad sounds very wise!
This really resonates with me! The team I lead is going through some related challenges right now. We are struggling to become less risk-averse and more innovative, flexible, and less top-heavy/more balanced regarding where in the organization the work gets done. I believe a healthier outlook on risk-taking is key to our next steps of growth.
Makes total sense. As a mother you wonder how much you squashed by being so protective. But in business I have always been a little more creative and risky. Hurt didn’t it?
Being creative is great but leaders must empower creative chances in order for their team to grow. Just when we think things are good, customers make us change to better support their needs. It’s all about ability to create, evaluate, change and adapt.
I found this article through a journey to explore personal knowledge mastery for a human capital development course I am taking. I enjoy your writing style of a clear and concise message mixed with personal experiences. It drew me in to read the full article and I am very interested in reading more.
Looking to change my current Paradigm. I hope this book provides the stimulus for positive change and growth!
Your comment about the restaurant hit home. We are a 110 year old company with two restaurants and a large catering business. 5 years ago we had an opportunity to open a restaurant next to our catering office in a town an hour away from corporate headquarters. I had a picture in my mind of how to make it suceesful. For the first year and one half we tanked. We closed and looked at our mistakes , made the corrections and reopened . It has been over the top since then.
in a time crisis it is easy to react instead of respond with innovation. The CREATE process needs to be part of your DNA before a crisis. Thanks Jeff for the reminder.
God can help us in the creative process, if we first thank him for what we have and then ask for what do we lack and then where do we go from here in the name of his son Jesus Christ
Thank you Mr Degraff. I’ve never considered myself creative. But that acronym Was not only informative but inspiring. It lets me know I don’t have to invent the wheel simply invest in the study of the wheel and I can make a newer version of the wheel.
We’re all a result of failure. Getting past it, quicker, helps move the creative process along. Thanks for the insight.
How might leaders accelerate the failure cycle for teams or individuals? By sharing our failures it helps prevent others from the same experiences, granted experiences sometimes teach better than the teacher. No one knows until they where the shoes.
The best present in life is to have (a sense of) yourself early. Then failure becomes a non-issue and you embrace it daily.
This is a great post! As a design engineer in the automotive industry, I have had many challenges over the years to experience the ‘Hurt, didn’t it?!’ moments. However, as a manager and a leader in my company, those moments have been many more and usually far more painful. The pain is expected in a purely creative role, such as a design engineer. As a leader, the pain is usually deeper and with greater frequency as you are ‘moving peoples cheese’ and most people I have come across don’t like to have their methods and processes changed, let alone their overall goals/targets! This is a great post to make people realize, pain and failure is part of the creative/innovation process and any person/company that does not experience this is not truly growing and working hard to improve their business. I hope that all who read this post can realize that failure and pain are a natural part of growth and innovation. Thank you for pointing out this wonderful condition: fail and fail often – for then you are truly trying to grow!
I know I’ve learned my best lessons from failure! It’s hard to let those I oversee fail, but the growth they experience is worth it.
So true. I have long held the belief if you aren’t failing, you aren’t stretching yourself enough. Great article.
“All skills go through the failure cycle,” certainly frames failure as necessary and positive.
I don’t consider myself creative, but I do try my best to think of innovative ways to make processes easier and to empower peers, but I would definitely like to be more creative in how I do that.
This is a great concept, Dan, and I shared the CREATE acronym with my team. I do find that I am more creative when I rest or am in a quiet space. In IT, it takes creativity to troubleshoot issues and I find that by brainstorming with a small group of knowledgeable techs, we mitigate more successfully. I could really use this book!
The examples relative to the first book, first restaurant, etc., reminded me of the first leadership position in which I served. That’s what a great post is supposed to do: Make you think and reflect!
Thank you.
Failure unleashes creativity – right up to the point where it stops you dead.
When you go down, and nothing will ever get you back up again, because somebody has to rake you out of the roadside and bury you in a bag
Very timely article! We just spent two years developing a program that ended up with a bunch of people walking away because things got tough which ended up in everyone else losing faith in the project and it tanked. Now we’re looking at what went wrong and why. How do we get people to press through instead of giving up?
Wishing that everyone could understand (or remember), mistakes are a part of growing and while we always want to protect we have to let them fall in order for the to rise up. So many times I have watched staff get overlooked because of a mistake that they made and most often, they were the ones that when given that chance, grew into the better leaders. They are not afraid to try new ideas and are more apt to think outside the box when the time arises.
I hope this book helps teach the true meaning of “the hurt”.
Indeed we do learn a better way and eventually the right way when we try and fail. I sometimes call this Fire, Aim, Ready. Our firm is in the SE Michigan retirement planning industry. We want to minimize our mistakes as clients might not be able to afford the consequences of substantial loss. Experience becomes very important and frequent review. Mark Twain said “good judgment come from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” If only we can minimize the “hurt.” Thjamls veur ,icj/
Thank you, Dan, for sharing this post. Seems that most people consider themselves not creative, and would rather resort to the all familiar ‘copy and paste’ strategy whenever possible. The set of concrete skills represented by the acronym CREATE really makes creative thinking accessible to each individual, by claryfiying — and this is the first step, isn’t it? — what this process entails, thus enabling all of us to practically examine it and engage in it.
To my mind, developing a creative mindset is so vital in our existance nowadays — personally and professionally. THANK YOU!
Great short and insightful read. One of our biggest shortcomings is often our fear to fail. That fear is associated with risk and in a professional environment may be controlled by how you and others around you react to the failure. As mentioned, failure is often the catalyst for innovation and creativity. It’s important to fail with purpose and learn from the experience.
Gosh, your posts just get better and better. I didn’t think I would be interested or think about creativity in this way. There’s hope for all of us! Thanks!
“Most people get stuck in the planning process. You know, the meeting about the meeting. They chance little and create less.” Fear, doubt and uncertainty drives one to be stuck. I find confidence easy these days because I’ve failed many times and I’ve used those “failures” to grow. Then again I am always taking that road less traveled and I have been successful doing so.
Great topic, the painter Henri Matisse said “creativity takes courage.” It’s one thing to see what others do not, and yet another thing to step into that vision and take action. Creativity requires some amount of risk. Creative people strive for something new and to change the status quo. To do this, one must believe in what they see and be able to get others to believe as well. Once a person has identified that they are, in fact, creative and that they have something to offer, they must have the confidence to act upon that realization.
“Failure unleashes creativity.” I have never thought of it this way, but that is so true. Some of the best brainstorming and ideas come after a thought or project doesn’t end how you anticipated and hoped it would!
Most invention stories start with failure
I would love to learn more about the creative process. I consider myself not creative but I’m sure reading this book will help me prove that being creative can be a skill to be learned.
Great topic during this time of immense uncertainty. It is a good reminder to continue to focus on YOU and to remember how you got where you are. I see it everyday in my line of work…that people jump into the middle of the process without being grounded on the strategy of the project. C-R-E-A-T-E is easy and currently attached to my monitor as a reminder of WHAT TO DO!!!
What a great way to remember this. Thank you for sharing!
Clarify: Getting the challenge right
Replicate: Mimicking and reapplying ideas
Elaborate: Multiplying ideas by adding new ones
Associate: Connecting ideas with analogies
Translate: Creating stories from ideas
Evaluate: Selecting the best ideas
Great reminder that failure is ok, it helps everyone to grow! Thank you
Without failure, there is little growth. We ask our teams to be creative and innovative, knowing its ok to fail. Just fail fast. 🙂
“Creative skills” are so transferable. From defining the right problem to solve, to generating and/or combining ideas, to implementation and evaluation. These skills can be used in EVERY job.
I find people struggle when they look at being creative or innovative.
They struggle with failure.
I believe they take the failure of an idea as the failure of the project.
They struggle with constraints that limit their creativity.
I share a mindset that says the more constraints you have, the more creative you need to be to work within the smaller box.
They struggle with their definition of creativity.
It’s not always “art”; it’s not about a fresh coat of lipstick, or the font and colors being used. Sometimes it’s a process change, sometimes it’s less red tape, sometimes it’s more.
I believe it is very important to open your mind in regards to creativity to be able to be more creative. Managers need to open their minds about the possibilities and change their work cultures to support creativity and more toward a “let’s try an experiment” mindset as opposed to promoting a fear of failure and looking bad to others.
As I typed the previous sentence, I feel it’s point is worth repeating.
Don’t be scared of what others think.
To me that is a bigger limiter and constraint to success than time or budget.
It feels like I’m always planning. It’s busy work but I get the sense that I’m actually doing something without paying the price. It’s a bad habit to get into. Thanks for the great post!
We all fail. What is important is what we learn from it.
This discussion reminds me of the failures one of our greatest Presidents experienced in his life; however he continued to persevere. President Lincoln had over a dozen significant failure, but he learned from those failures and kept moving forward. The below is a short list of key moments in his life:
Lost his job, 1832
Defeated for the legislature, 1832
Failed in business, 1833
Elected to legislature, 1834
Sweetheart (Ann Rutledge) died, 1835
Had nervous breakdown, 1836
Defeated for Speaker, 1838
Defeated for nomination for Congress, 1843
Elected to Congress, 1846
Lost re-nomination, 1848
Rejected for Land Officer, 1849
Defeated for the Senate, 1854
Defeated for nomination for Vice-President, 1856
Again defeated for the Senate, 1858
Elected President,1860
Heck of a c.v. … gives profound life to “failing forward,” one step forward, two back, one BIG one forward. Doesn’t even include the more acute episodes during the Civil War where he had to persevere in becoming a credible Commander in Chief.
Failure has always been a hard pill for me to swallow. I always want to bring my best, so I hesitate to bring new ideas to the table for fear of failure. Creativity has always been a struggle for me definitely an area I can grow in for sure!
This is an awesome post. I try very hard to encourage those I work with to take risks with ideas and not worry about perfection. To improve, we have to START. Sometimes we paralyze ourselves with the fear of failure to the point where we just stay on the wheel talking, rather than doing. Thank you for another post that hits home for me.
Great reminder not to get stuck in the planning stage. I’ve had many more plans than finished projects. Maybe some of those plans are still salvageable – with the right followup strategies.
One of my favorite responses to employees when they admit a failure or mistake is “Your human was showing.” That let’s them know that I see mistakes and failures as a normal part of human experience and I won’t hold it against them. Creativity is also a human quality and I need to accept the failures in order to benefit from the creative thinking.
I teach primary gifted and talented students and we just discussed that it is okay to make mistakes because there is always something to learn from our mistakes. We analyze mistakes that famous people made and then use our own creativity to improve on our mistakes.
Thanks for that post- it is a helpful reminder that sometimes we need to just do something! A nice reminder to go for it. IT makes me think of Joseph Campbell and the idea of jumping off the cliff. And the idea that creativity isn’t just out of the box thinking, but also the willingness to try, fail, and keep trying and know that’s the process. Thanks again, I Will think about this through the day!
Our parents were of the same mold. Mine are both gone now. Looking down at me now, Mom is probably saying “See, I knew that was risky” Dad would likely say, “Look she is getting back up and trying it another way!” Still learning…
Great post. We don’t start new initiatives expecting them to fail, we expect them to succeed. But the path to that success requires trying and exploring and finding what doesn’t work. It seems the key as leaders is to help our people understand that it is important to find out not only what works but what doesn’t work so that the people that are doing the creating have greater confidence in their own work. I look forward to reading the book.
Wow! Never thought of the creative process in such succinct terms.
As a school principal, we actually try to encourage failure as part of the learning process!
I so embrace the ‘Hurt, didn’t it’ mindset, both in parenting and in leadership. Kids and adults alike have to feel like it is ok to try something and fail. Way better to try, fail, shake it off, adjust and try again than to languish, drowning in the fear of making a mistake.
I really enjoyed this post. Very enlightening.
Dr. DeGraff is absolutely correct. As a Regional Vice President in Primerica I witness his concept daily. We train our new associates by see me do then do. By this method we collapse their failure cycle.
Pushing through the mindset of failure into that of creativity is extremely difficult without someone there to pick you up and ask “hurt, didn’t it”. Having that support base around you to move to a better mindset is crucial to get past the failure and allow the creativity to flow.
My now 24yo daughter would bristle at my routine comment “So what did you learn?” after an unexpected or undesired outcome.
Exasperated she once cried: “Does everything have to have a lesson Dad??” My response was “It does – and it is usually better to learn it the first time around because if you don’t it will be back!” Of course, she groaned!
That was my more enlightened way of dealing with her than my own dad‘s response of “Hurt, didn’t it!”
Our goal as parents- and leaders – is to protect from a disastrous outcome if we can but otherwise ensure the lessons are learned and understood!!
Thanks for a smile this morning Jeff!
John: Your comment about teaching your now 24 yr old daughter brings back memories with my now 27 yr old daughter when she was in college. We had a few events in college (with part time jobs) that she had to learn from stumbling and failure and we had a similar talk. She however did not sigh, just a big hug and kiss and “thank you Dad for being there for me”. I believe I did well with that as she is now a wife and Mother of a 13 month old Son in East Texas after having worked as a Special Ed Teacher for a few years. Thanks for bringing back fond memories.
How creativity is propulsed by failure? Geniouses minds have also been not surmonted by failure… Why does pur society so much shames failure?
What do I learn from failure? I asked one time our national box champion how he feels when he wins and how he feels when he looses. His answers were reavealing to me… When I win I feel my work so far and my efforts has been rewarded and when I loose, I admit, it is not joy what I feel, but I must admit the other was better than me and that I need to keep working harder to get better results. No hard feelings, just power to start back up.
Working on implimenting that
Thank you for the chance of leaving this comment, IT was helpful for me
I too tend to get stuck in the planning cycle – fear of the getting “hurt.” Sad that the idea of chancing a couple of skinned knees can hold us back from our potential. Hmmm, time to go out and play!
I have been most successful when my one-up has given me the freedom to fail. My creativity soared and reached lofty goals in unconventional ways. There were some lessons along the way that hurt, but the skinned knees were worth the big risks and the big pay-offs
Trial and error are our greatest teachers
Thnanks for the CREATIVE skills
I’d be interested in hearing more about productive ways to build a culture that supports the iterative nature of the creative process. In education, sometimes students (and parents) might not be willing to accept being involved in the early steps…
(Thanks for considering me for the giveaway.)
Dan, I am curious about the book giveaways that you promote. I have recently completed a book and would like to partner with you.
Dave
Dave.Razo@gmail.com
Terrific post, thank you!
I find that remembering things like potato chips and post-it notes helps me push through my creative process hurdles. So many great things grew out of someone’s doggedness to show up to a creative problem or simply see a “mistake” as opportunity.
I had an art teacher who would say, ‘get it done, not perfect’. So often that has helped me in the studio and other work places to push through. Thanks again for a terrific post and for C-R-E-A-T-E, I will post that on my studio/office door and add to my process of considering the invention of the potato chip and post-it notes!
Cheers, Carol Bolt
https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2013/09/foods-invented-mistake/
I have had a lifelong commitment to growth for decades, and as a leader have been and am an active agent for change, where we must assess the risks and move forward, and sometimes things fail. What is critical is to assess with clarity what went wrong, then marshal our agility, flexibility, and resilience to make the next choices as we keep marching forward!
Excellent article. I can relate as I may have been that father.
Quoting: “Failure unleashes creativity.” Failure SHOULD unleash creativity; but only if we consider carefully why we fail so that we understand the likely reason(s). Most probably, the failure was associated with not determining the characteristics of the effort that ended in failure – leading to our adapting our or others’ previous work wrongly. Presuming we address our incomplete understanding of the specifics, we will without question be reminded that the critical issues are in the details. And we will seek to creatively address the problem, starting with problem definition, rather than adapting previous work. Paraphrasing an important quote: It’s not failure and it’s nothing to be fear UNLESS we choose it to be so!
This reminds me of the song, “This Is It” by Kenny Loggins, which I played before heading to my finals in college and mentally played when I studied for the big final, practiced for my first marathon, planned my wedding, waited for my first interview, or when I appeared at a huge event that I organized! You can plan your steps, look over your checklist, mouth what you want to say, but you still have to take that final breath and LEAP, because nothing will go as planned, your written or mental outline will blow out the door and yet, only you knew the details, anyway, and the ride is sweet and exhilarating!!!!!
That is exactly what my Dad said.
Spot on. As a high school administrator, not only do I encourage this idea with staff, but also with students. For them to learn that failing is a part of learning, I believe, builds resilience. When they have a moment that they identify as failing, it’s “that’s curious…” what did I notice and now I get to move forward. Thanks for this post.
I like the idea of this book. I could use some tips on making analogies and story telling. It’s hard to stay creative during Covid but my business depends on it. I look forward to learning from you.
Hi Dan, your dad and I must be from the same school of thought… my favourite saying to my three kids when they fell was always “get up, give it a rub and get going again!!” i now think in terms of “Fail to fail; you’re not stretching yourself far enough… when you do fail… get up, give it a rub and get going again!!” For me the rub is now reflection for progression.
I’ve never been a big risk taker so I haven’t experienced a great deal of failure in my life. I typically don’t read books like this but my sister does. This Covid thing has affected my status with my current employer so I’m looking for a change in my life. A new path might be the change I need so maybe taking a few risks is something I need to experience.
Jeff’s book sounds like a great book. A very helpful book when facing a creative challenge.
Conclusion is “it’s a risky business”….but worth it to get the creativity going. I’d love to read Jeff’s book to learn more!
I can relate to most of the cycles, but of particular interest is the “Failure Cycle”.
Often times entrepreneurs interpret failure very badly.
This causes us to give up before we Breakthrough.
Failure only means your plans are at an embryonic stage.
It means that you are getting ready, not that you haven’t started.
Think of failure as preparing a meal, until it is ready, it’s value is lost.
Thanks for writing this book.
I look forward to reading it.
This was great and exactly what I needed to hear. I am 4 months in a new role (moved from manager to director) and I am experiencing some frustrations. This really helps me refocus.
Thank you for the info.
Typed a long comment and then couldn’t log in. “Hurt, didn’t it?” would make an attention-getting title for the book. Truth.
Looks like a great book. I love the thought that anyone can learn to be creative! Good stuff here…
Look at Apple’s history of products (I’m an alum) we always said we were late to the party but best dressed. The success of the Apple II after the Apple I. Mac after Lisa. The team that creates the Newton left and went on to create the Palm Pilot at Motorola. To get to Plan B you have to go through plan A!
Thanks for reminding me it is ok to fail. Have spent my entire life seeking perfection and most probably taking the safe route when it appears that I should be seeking or at least embracing failure to spur me on to ‘think outside the box’
Excellent mnemonic device! Thanks for sharing!
Dan,
Right now more than ever where I’m working we’re having to be creative. While most of our team works remotely there are a few of us that are hands on. During this COVID we’ve had to adapt new protocols and the way we do business. Since we’re a community center we’ve had our fair share of challenges. I’ve had to keep a creative mindset and keep thinking of ways to evolve during this pandemic for our staff, donors and community. I’ve learned so much from you and your posts this last 7 months that have helped me to rethink and maneuver thru these ever changing times to survive and thrive. This post hits the nail on the head for what we’re going thru at the moment since so many people unfortunately are failing trying to keep there business a float by being to risky or not being creative at all.
Thanks
Marvin Yeager
I base my middle school Learning to Learn classes on this concept along with growth mindset, and cognitive flexibility. I’ll be using this in our next class!
An interesting post for all leaders to review their plans and check on periodic progress with an eye on the final goal!
It is a challenging task for any leader to keep the team of doers highly motivated and ensure that they work on their singular and collective contributions per the set plans. They need to find the ways to tackle any obstacle coming in their way with speed and creativity.
I strongly feel that it’s the role of a leader to direct, push and inspire the team to achieve the final goal. Periodic reviews and learning from the smaller achievements will certainly lead to the desired success.
Failure is the requisite stepping stone to success. Overnight success averages 15 years in the making. Awesome topic, thanks!
I am finding more and more parallels between parenting and leadership, so loved this way of illustrating the concept. I’d be curious to know your thoughts on re-framing procrastination as an element of the creative process?
I love this post especially in light of the COVID pandemic. Our team has had a lot of “falling off the horse” since returning from quarantine. While I am sure a lot of that failure is due to psychological factors associated with these unprecedented times, it is important to remember that failure is almost inevitable. Failure is not always a bad thing, as long as you are learning from your mistakes. That is the entire basis of using AARs and IPs in emergency preparedness planning.
This is nice, I have been wanting to reach out to guides on creativity and this sounds exciting to plug on. I like your organisation as well as the use of scenario to explain situations. Thanks for this opportunity!
Freedom to fail unleashes the iterative creative process. It’s important to remember that people respond to how they’re assessed or rewarded. There’s little to no creative risk-taking when the reward is a lack of punishment! Cultures that demand perfection and frown on departures from established practices squelch the abundance of creativity its members could bring to the table!
I love to learn more about creative mindset!
Thank you for sharing the article!
Best,
Como acelerar el “failure cycle”: el lider de un equipo debe hacer las preguntas correctas para animar a su equipo a que encuentre la solución al problema y no quedarse estancado en la fase de planeación y pasar a la acción donde tiene campo el fracaso o falla.
How to accelerate the “failure cycle”: the leader of a team must ask the right questions to encourage his team to find the solution to the problem and not get stuck in the planning phase and take action where failure or failure.
I may be coming to the end of my career, I still have lots to share with colleagues
Look forward to a wonderful read as the leadership freak twitter handle posts are an inspiration and have been a major influence on my leadership style refinement.
Failure definitely hurts 🙁 but I totally understand the benefits of it. I think my most creative moments come from falling on my face. I hope to read your book and think it would be incredibly beneficial to the work we do.
Failure is only true failure when you fail to learn from your failure!!!
How might leaders accelerate the failure cycle for teams or individuals?
I have always wanted to try a few of the IDEO methods (check them out here: https://www.ideo.com/post/method-cards), namely the Pop-Up Shop, where a group can test their business for a week to better understand what works or what doesn’t. I actually do a small version of this with agile delivery on my work projects, which is safe and relatively easy to create minimum viable products then iterate them over the period of performance. But a full on week of a new business or product is the creative failure cycle on full tilt.
Popups are becoming more frequent, but they’re not always for testing out a novel product. Sometimes they’re about access to an existing product or service in a new area or in a new way. Popups can also be socially-driven, designing spaces and interactions between people and communities. Either way, popups can be fun and relatively safe places to do mini experiments on new products and services.