This is inspired by a conversation I had at our Vaco Agile coach’s guild.  

We had a discussion around it being ok to fail is NOT simply leaders giving us space/safety to fail. It’s also about our internal willingness to fail.

For example, as I’m a strong and driven Type A, my personality isn’t that comfortable with failure. So, even if the ecosystem is “failure friendly” or encouraging…

  • Am I? and if not, why not?

  • Are other members of my team? And if not, why not?

  • Are members of my group or tribe? And if not, why not?

And if we’re not internally failure friendly, how do we get there? How do I/we move the needle?

Wrapping Up

This was a real short take post, but I hope it starts you thinking about your safety and failure friendly ecosystem.

While, yes, your leaders play a really SIGNIFICANT role in it. It’s not solely about them. It’s also about US and our WE walking our own talk?

How might we test it? Perhaps checking for –

  • When was the last time someone on your team failed…and shared it?

  • And, when was the last time you failed…and shared it?

Anyway, food for thought. Stay agile my friends,

Bob.

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