Within the agile community, I’ve seen quite a few examples of folks doing a, how do I say it, Failure Bow. To be frank, I didn’t know what it was all about. Sure, I get the gist of it. But where does it come from? And what are folks trying to represent by doing it? I never quite knew the backstory.
I also discovered that there were also several forms of it. There was the in-person failure bow. For example, a speaker making a mistake in front of their audience would do it.
But I recently received some email from Scrum Alliance folks that had mistakes in them. The senders then did virtual failure bows via follow-up emails. I’ve even seen folks do it via #failurebow in the twitter (and other) streams.
It made me want to explore it a bit deeper. So, I did.
Back Story
I think the best explanation for it comes from Deborah Preuss who has a nice, 5-minute recording explaining the technique.
What I like most about it is that Debbie brings it home to an agile context.
As you can see, it seems to be a “release mechanism” so that we don’t hold onto our mistakes too long and allow them to defocus us. I like that.
I’m sort of a perfectionist. So, when I make a mistake, which is often, I hold onto it for far too long. And it impacts what I’m moving on to do. If I’m teaching a class or coaching, the effect can really derail my effectiveness. Sometimes for the rest of the day.
Having a mechanism like the failure bow to acknowledge, release, and move on, is really attractive to me. And I’m now starting to use it…frequently.
A Nit to Pick
But I’ve also seen, what seems to me, to be overuse of the failure bow. For example, I’ve seen leaders forget to do something that has great impact on their organization and the people within it. I mean, they’ve failed and it has significant impact.
As a means of acknowledging it, they simply perform a failure bow and move on.
I think this is taking the mistake, the failure, too lightly. While I’m not looking for them to grovel, I think a more significant acknowledgement and an apology might be in order.
A statement that they understand the impact of their mistake, they apologize for it, and that they will endeavor to improve so that they don’t repeat the mistake might be a more congruent response.
Wrapping Up
The failure bow certainly has its uses in specific situations. And the notion of (releasing it and moving on) is a powerful one.
However, there are times when a good, old-fashioned apology might be a better response. One that shows more personal vulnerability.
Leverage your emotional intelligence to determine when and where to use either approach.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.