Reframing Failure

Описание: Performance evaluation is an ongoing, and necessary, part of professional life. But that doesn't mean the metrics are accurate, or relevant, or even effectively measurable. By #ReframingFailure productively you can always succeed longterm, #JediReflections

Transcription:
Hello there.

I'm indoors today because it's August
and so it's raining.

It's just teeming down out there.

Every once in a while I get a message from somebody and I feel compelled to respond.

I got a message from a father whose child, whose young adult has, is an elite track athlete and has failed at interview, if you like.

They have had an opportunity to try out and not done as well as they'd hoped.

And I thought that this was important to respond to, because A I've been there. All of us probably, one way or another, have been there.
And B because I think it's important to reframe failure a little bit.

I want this young person to know that there is bad failure out there.
I want all of you to know there is bad failure.
Those days when we decide to not study.
To not prepare.
Before an examination.
Those days we decide not to do any due diligence on a company we're applying for a job for.
There's lots of ways that you can fail badly.

But failure is also part of success.
And needs to be framed as such.

I imagine, I know that in the case of this young person, they prepared. Diligently.
And fell short on the day.
That's a good failure.

This day and age you get people talking about innovation, relentlessly.
Fail fast, they say.
Without realising that means we need to reframe failure as part of the path to success.

You'll hear people glibly say that anyone who's achieved any measure of success will have failed numerous times in the past. And somehow that's glorious, because the outcome is successful. Eventually.

But each of us must find a way to look with objectivity at our failures.
At least those good failures where we've prepared and done everything we could, and still fallen short.

To find perhaps not solace, but some sense in it.

Knowing that sometimes you just show up and don't have it.
For no good reason.

Failure is a part of success.

It is a sign that you are challenging yourself to your limits.
It is something to be proud of, being willing to be vulnerable about the very fact that you would push yourself to a point where you could fail.
That's something we should be proud of.

I used to get asked all the time, when I used to do basketball camps with kids.
And they used to say: have you ever been dunked on?
And I used to gleefully say: Yes! So many times!
And it's not just because I was a lacklustre defender.
It's because I was playing at such a level where I could always be outperformed, even if I did everything perfectly.

I always used to tell the kids when they were like Oooooh!
Remember, if you've never been dunked on, perhaps what you should contemplate is that you haven't played at a high enough level.

If you've never failed, perhaps what we need to contemplate is that you've never really challenged yourself.

To this young person, to any young people, to any people who have failed recently:
Make sure that it is a stepping stone.
Learn from it.
Step back from it, but don't live in it.

Failure is something that has gone amiss, has gone awry, has gone wrong.
It isn't a description of who you are.