Great Morning Team,
I found this incredible story of what we could consider a “complex failure”, shared by Amy Edmondson through social media and wanted to pass this on to you all. We have spoken quite a bit about what it means to fail well, and in the video clip I sent a few months back in a Better We, Better Week post, ( Click Here ) Amy Edmondson discusses the three archetypes types of failures: Simple, Complex and Intelligent. While it’s clear that we want to avoid the simple and complex failures and pursue the intelligent failure, as that is what helps us to grow and innovate faster, it is important not to dismiss that ALL types of failure are valued, and even more valuable when we learn from our mistakes.
It is in this spirit that I introduce this incredible narrative: a case study of failure written from the heart, by scientist, Chris Lewicki, President, and Chief Asteroid Miner of Planetary Resources: “My $500M Mars Rover Mistake: A Failure Story”. Chris shares, with an abundance of humor, vulnerability and humility, the error he made in the NASA Jet Propulsion Lag when preparing a Mars Rover for a launch into Space last year that could have cost NASA millions along with his job and career. Chris shares his detailed journey, the completely relatable emotions that arrived with the discovery of his critical mistake, and the cringe-worthy reactions from some of his colleagues.
In the end, the lessons he learned from this experience were more impactful and meaningful than he could have ever imagined. This is a fantastic case study of the amazing potential that comes from being a part of a Growth Culture that continually supports and promotes personal and professional growth of its staff, despite simple and complex mistakes and failures. In fact, when employees recognize they have the constant support from Leadership with a safe space to try, test, explore, fail, and ultimately learn, grow, and develop, failure becomes normalized and Intelligent failure is encouraged, which can lead to our competitive edge of quick and steadfast innovation organizationally.
Check out the article: https://www.chrislewicki.com/articles/failurestory . I would love your thoughts and feedback!
Thanks,
Lori Beth
