First up, don’t fear failure. Failure is just another word for learning. If we’re not failing, then chances are we’re staying safe in our comfort zone and we can’t be comfortable AND in growth as they’re opposing states.
The most important factor in successful failure (there’s an oxymoron!) is that we “fail forward”, that we learn from our failure AND most importantly, we take responsibility for it.
Research shows that when we take personal responsibility for our failures, rather than blaming outside circumstances, we’re more likely to learn from them and work harder to avoid future failures.
There’s a fascinating study by Myers, Staats and Gino on what they termed the “ambiguity of responsibility” that illustrates this perfectly.
They asked subjects to hypothetically study and approve a car for a race, but they left out one piece of research in the materials they gave out (but that was available by external research) – that the car had a 99.99% chance of gasket failure.
In the second part of the study the subject were asked to identify a fictional terrorist. Again, a crucial bit of information missing in the form of an email.
Those subjects who took responsibility for missing the key data for the car, for not researching outside the scope of the given materials, were much more likely to identify the terrorist.
Those who blamed the missing key data for the failure in the race, were much less likely to identify the terrorist in the second part of the experiment.
You see, when we take responsibility, we learn, and we can apply that learning forward.
We can use this for our own personal growth. Where are you passing the buck on your personal goals?
Where are you prepared to step up, take the blame and do something about it?
Admitting we got it wrong empowers us by putting the ball back in our court. If we pass the buck we surrender our power to change.
What one thing could you step up for in your life?
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