Creative Reaction

*if you are to deliver a breakthrough product or service.

I am not talking about a culture of sloppiness or irresponsibility, but one of difference, change, and creativity. Our society, our educational systems and our workplaces stress rewarding what we do correctly, yet it is experience, and, yes, making mistakes, which allow for the biggest opportunities for personal growth and innovation.

Two items I recently read support the above statements. The first is a ChangeThis manifesto, Turning Learning Right Side Up, a free .pdf report and an excellent read for “students” of any age. The second is an NYT article (free subscription required) explaining the importance of being “growth-minded”; the mindset of lifelong learners and entrepreneurs. If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow, talks of managers who hire the “best & brightest”, only to hamstring them by placing them in an environment of high expectations and fear (of failure).

The best part of the article details how Scott Forstall, an SVP at Apple, put together the team which developed the iPhone’s software. First, Forstall “identified a number of superstars within various departments at Apple and asked them in for a chat.” During the subsequent interview he explained that though he could not reveal the details of the project, he said to each recruit, “(we may) make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may do something that we’ll remember the rest of our lives”. It is important to note that these people would be walking away from their previous successes and positions. Those who jumped at the opportunity made the team; Forstall was looking for people willing to stretch themselves, rather than rest on previous successes.

A post I wrote about Google back in September ‘06 also addresses this way of thinking. And 10 Ways to Foster Innovation in Your Company ties the room together.

So… Be great! Encourage greatness!

Not sure of the appeal of this, as it largely has to do with local sports, though an emotional story nonetheless.

Buckner receives warm reception from Fenway faithful. Many Red Sox fans & members of the media have blamed Bill Buckner for single-handedly loosing the 1986 World Series for the Red Sox, despite the fact that baseball is a team sport and the “body” of his work speaks for itself.

Life is simply too short to hold grudges; they are like a cancer, or voluntarily wearing shackles. Bigger people forgive. Be Big.

“Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.” -Dale Carnegie

It seems few people today realize that Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in 1936, details in hundreds of anecdotes how management skills and “people skills” were leveraged by some of the richest men of that era.

One of the principles that struck me was that truly great people easily forgive. A passage from the book:
“Sincere appreciation was one of the secrets of the first John D. Rockefeller’s success in handling men. For example, when one of his partners, Edward T. Bedford, lost a million dollars for the firm by a bad buy in South America, John D. might have criticized; but he knew Bedford had done his best - and the incident was closed. So Rockefeller found something to praise; he congratulated Bedford because he had been able to save 60 percent of the money he had invested. ‘That’s splendid,’ said Rockefeller. ‘We don’t always do as well as that upstairs.’”
(Of course, in 1936, a million dollars represented considerably more money than it does today.)

Another quote from the book:
“A great man shows his greatness,” said (Thomas) Carlyle , “by the way he treats little men.”

But this tops them all!
“Bob Hoover, a famous test pilot and frequent performer at air shows, was returning to his home in Los Angeles from an air show in San Diego. As described in the magazine Flight Operations, at three hundred feet in the air, both engines suddenly stopped. By deft maneuvering he managed to land the plane, but it was badly damaged although nobody was hurt.

Hoover’s first act after the emergency landing was to inspect the airplane’s fuel. Just as he suspected, the World War II propeller plane he had been flying had been fueled with jet fuel rather than gasoline.

Upon returning to the airport, he asked to see the mechanic who had serviced his airplane. The young man was sick with the agony of his mistake. Tears streamed down his face as Hoover approached. He had just caused the loss of a very expensive plane and could have caused the loss of three lives as well.

You can imagine Hoover’s anger. One could anticipate the tonguelashing that this proud and precise pilot would unleash for that carelessness. But Hoover didn’t scold the mechanic; he didn’t even criticize him. Instead, he put his big arm around the man’s shoulder and said, ‘To show you I’m sure that you’ll never do this again, I want you to service my F-51 tomorrow.’”

Our work environments could be vastly better places if we learned from this example.

Fortune Magazine completely misses something here while they are trashing Google in a PRI/Marketplace interview, the transcript of which is here.

(EXCERPT)
INTERVIEWER:
They’ve got this culture where anything goes and you can learn from your mistakes. Do you ever get fired, though, from Google? I mean, I’ve never heard of anybody losing their job there.

FORTUNE MAGAZINE:
In fact, one of Google’s most senior executives Sheryl Sanberg, who’s a vice president and runs all of the automated advertising systems that Google has, told me about a multimillion-dollar mistake that she made. And when she realized her mistake she walked across the street at the Googleplex in Mountain View and she told cofounder Larry Page about it. What was interesting was his reaction. He said, “Yeah, we shouldn’t have done that. We’ll know better next time. But, oh, by the way, it’s good that you made this mistake. I’m glad,” he told her, “because we need to be the kind of company that is willing to make mistakes. Because if we’re not making mistakes, then we’re not taking risks. And if we’re not taking risks, we won’t get to the next level.”

INTERVIEWER:
You think about that for a second. I mean, if you and I made a million-dollar mistake, even a $100,000 mistake, we’d be gone.

FORTUNE MAGAZINE:
Right, but this is a company that makes so much money, first of all, that it can afford it.
(END EXCERPT)

These guys are both oblivious to something really important here. They are fixated on the money. And they’re wrong to do so. This is about allowing - even encouraging - their employees to take risks and possibly make mistakes. This is part of the corporate culture and more importantly, it is supported all the way up the chain to the CxO level, because they know this is the path to success.

Companies must be eager to extend forgiveness to employees who make mistakes, and then take complete responsibility for their mistakes. These are good, honest people. Be assured, such employees will be grateful, loyal, and willing to work hard for you.