Thomas Edison is famously quoted as saying “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work”. Maybe that is ok if you’re an inventor but if like most of us, you’re not, then 10,000 failures is most likely to result in you losing your job! This means that most of us face a constant predicament; I want to pursue a course of action that I know is potentially good but there are consequences that I’d prefer not to face if I fail. Understanding how and when to take risks is therefore important…as is knowing how to behave if things do actually go wrong.
For those still not sure if risks are worth taking at all, read “No Risk, No Fun? People who take risks more satisfied with their lives” from Sciencedaily.com and then come back to this blog! I know we’re focused on career development here but look at it this way, if you don’t take any risk at all, you cannot possibly enjoy your career and to be frank, it’s not going to develop into much if you only follow the status quo. Innovation is what drives business forward and innovation by definition requires some risk taking. You have to try things to see if they work. If they do, you could be next for promotion and if they don’t, well you just have to fearlessly get back up and find something that does.
So here’s how it works. Imagine that you have a deposit box and into that deposit box go credits when things go well and debits when they don’t go so well. Everything you do either adds to the credits or the debits and your balance is how well you’re doing. Knowing what you’re willing to risk really depends upon what you think you could lose. Be prudent. There is no way to move from second year in Sales to CEO in the immediate term. Credits must be built over time from multiple successes. There is though the possibility of catastrophic failure that could result in your immediate departure from the company. Therefore, in your early career, you take appropriate risks (ie: small) in order to build a steady stream of credits into your deposit box without risking too many debits. The more credit you have, the greater risk you might take in the future.Identifying innovative opportunities is not difficult. Every company has processes, especially those completed at junior levels that could do with re-working. And remember, you’re not looking to change the world on day 1. You simply need to demonstrate that you have the capacity and capability to identify areas for improvement, create changes that improve them and implement them with maximum aplomb! Always a good first step once you’ve identified something that you think you might do better is to ask an expert. For example, if you think that developing a small database of client preferences with open access to anybody in your team could prove worthwhile when cross selling, then buy a colleague a coffee and introduce the idea in a ‘wouldn’t it be good if…” moment. Some positive re-enforcement is always good when at the idea stage whilst a barrage of negative warnings reminding you of confidentiality issues might be helpful to prevent you going too far too soon with the development and marketing of your work.
Whilst planning is often everything, for small credit building enhancements experimentation is probably your best friend. Once you’ve confirmed that something is a good idea, start trying it out. If the database idea has potential, start collecting data points on a spreadsheet and using them in your daily work. From this, you’ll quickly get a better idea of what works and what doesn’t. The positives stay whilst the data that’s worthless gets the chop. Once you’ve designed and experimented with something that is showing signs of success, start recording data. Work through 10 client communications without the aid of your spreadsheet of preferences. Then work through with it. Record the results, both your own personal feedback and that from clients…yes, you should ask them whether your service has improved. With some early positive data, now is the time to approach your manager. Prepare a small 1-page presentation and ask for 20 minutes of their time to discuss a new idea that you’ve put into practice and seems to be delivering, based upon personal experience and client feedback, small improvements. Tell her that you want her opinion on what you’ve been doing as if she likes it, perhaps she could introduce it to a larger test population or at least let you offer it to your direct colleagues.
At this point, you’re nearly there. You’ve already impressed your manager with your innovative ideas and design improvements but now it’s time to close the deal. You must work with a small number of your colleagues and collect results. Do this diligently and objectively. The fact that you’ve now brought your manager into the situation has relinquished blame from you in the event of major failure. Important now is to accept constructive feedback to your ideas and allow them to grow with the feedback and the input of others. If you too vigorously defend your original idea even in the presence of better or complimentary ideas, you will not get the buy in from your colleagues and you work will die before implementation. What you retain responsibility for is the reporting back of progress, successes and areas for the idea to be further developed. If you do this, and successfully implement a change improvement, you’ll bank some well-deserved credits allowing you opportunity to increase the scale of your next initiative.
Not every idea will work so smoothly though and there is a chance for failure at any point. If you fail at the first hurdle (ie: your client reminds you that your service stinks and for all your ideas, you still forgot their purchase order from last week) then keep the idea to yourself and tell nobody. If you fail at the ‘what if’ stage, then again, say nothing but refine your idea until you have the chance to review it again. If your manager explains to you why your idea is doomed to fail, thank her for the feedback but use the opportunity to ask her what she thinks could be done to improve things and then agree to report back to her after you’ve investigated more fully. And finally, if your idea fails in implementation or broader testing then take the feedback and understand the reasons before proudly declaring that at least you’ve found 1 thing that doesn’t work, now you’re going to find what will!
Risk taking is necessary for all who wish to progress their careers. Edison had the advantage of having so many credits banked that ideas which failed 10,000 times still didn’t detract from his success. Few of us, especially in the early stages of our careers have such a reputation in place and so a methodology that minimises our risk yet demonstrates that we have the capacity for appropriate risk taking and creativity is important for success. Working through ideas and conducting small tests to prove concept is an important first step. As is then socialising ‘what if’s’. Managerial buy in based upon some early results hedges your personal risk before you go too far and then objective assessment of implementation results gains you team buy in and stickiness for your idea. But remember that on occasion you will fail. If you have reached the stage where it is results from the team that bury your idea then so long as you’ve got your manager’s approval for their involvement, then you’ve lost nothing but like Edison, you have learnt something that doesn’t work. Be proud of the process you went through and get back to finding the next innovative idea to try.
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I wholeheartedly agree