Publication<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThose who wish to avoid errors, will not be innovative. In the end, that can bring a company down\u201d. The economic psychologist, Michael Frese has been researching error culture in companies since 1985 at the Research Center for Entrepreneurship at L\u00fcneburg University and the University of Singapore. When he began researching failure, he heard the same thing from most companies, \u201cAt our company, no mistakes happen\u201d. Which of course was not true, it is simply that errors were never spoken of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For one thing, executives and management showed no sympathy for errors, and apart from that, employees themselves, as a result of the \u201czero errors culture\u201d were afraid of being \u201cpunished\u201d and mistakes were covered up or attributed to someone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last few decades thinking has changed \u2013 large players like the US tech giants Amazon and Google have even incorporated openly dealing with errors into their company philosophies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And why should companies actively develop their own error culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In order to test ideas that may not initially appear very probable but are nonetheless feasible, it is necessary to have a culture which allows failure. To achieve the improbable \u2013 you have to leave the road leading to the probable. If something new is supposed to be created, new horizons must be explored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Malaysia, even in primary school children are already brought to visit inventors\u2019 exhibitions. They are supposed to see that anything is possible \u2013 and that making new attempts again and again can pave the way to a breakthrough. The aim is to remove the fear of failure for the schoolchildren at an early stage so that later on, they will know no limits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas Edison, who invented the lightbulb, is reputed to have made more than 1,000 unsuccessful attempts to develop a marketable lightbulb, and in doing so said about himself: \u201cI have not failed. I just found 1,000 ways to not make a lightbulb.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a healthy error culture, you can learn from other\u2019s mistakes. The foundation of this lies in trusting interactions among each other, and that means across all levels of a company\u2019s hierarchy. According to Michael Frese, learning from mistakes can lead to more innovations, and openly dealing with errors can promote cooperation within a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And so last Thursday, the first #failnight took place in our Munich office. Maximilian Leicht (Director at KBC and organiser of #failnight): \u201cEvery one of us makes mistakes in the day-to-day of our projects. And that is not a bad thing. It is only important that you do not repeat them, and that instead you talk about and learn from your mistakes. Because if you talk to one another, you can profit from the experience of others, and avoid the mistake the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In accordance with the motto: \u201cNo success stories, no glossy slides, and no self-congratulation\u201d, at the #failnight every colleague was able to talk in a relaxed atmosphere about errors they had made. To do this, Maximilian Leicht had chosen the well-known storytelling format of a \u201chero\u2019s journey\u201d. Each participant was given a task ahead of time to choose a \u201ccartoon hero\u201d for themselves, and to give them a name and three specific characteristics. The \u201cheroes\u201d were symbols of the experience that could be gained from the mistakes made. And so, in an informal atmosphere, it was possible to talk about negative events and at the same time the focus was on the experience which was able to be gained due to the error. In exchanges among colleagues, at the end everyone worked together to develop ideas to solve the individual errors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is important to us that younger colleagues in particular see that mistakes are not something terrible, and that they can also happen to experienced colleagues. At KBC we talk openly about that and learn together from mistakes\u201d, concluded Maximilian Leicht.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThose who wish to avoid errors, will not be innovative. In the end, that can bring a company down\u201d. The economic psychologist, Michael Frese has been researching error culture in companies since 1985 at the Research Center for Entrepreneurship at L\u00fcneburg University and the University of Singapore. When he began researching failure, he heard the same thing from most companies, \u201cAt our company, no mistakes happen\u201d. Which of course was not true, it is simply that errors were never spoken of. <\/p>\n
For a long time making a mistake was a taboo topic in the professional world<\/p>\n
For one thing, executives and management showed no sympathy for errors, and apart from that, employees themselves, as a result of the \u201czero errors culture\u201d were afraid of being \u201cpunished\u201d and mistakes were covered up or attributed to someone else.<\/p>\n
In the last few decades thinking has changed \u2013 large players like the US tech giants Amazon and Google have even incorporated openly dealing with errors into their company philosophies.<\/p>\n
Why is it good to make mistakes?<\/p>\n
And why should companies actively develop their own error culture?<\/p>\n
In order to test ideas that may not initially appear very probable but are nonetheless feasible, it is necessary to have a culture which allows failure. To achieve the improbable \u2013 you have to leave the road leading to the probable. If something new is supposed to be created, new horizons must be explored.<\/p>\n
In Malaysia, even in primary school children are already brought to visit inventors\u2019 exhibitions. They are supposed to see that anything is possible \u2013 and that making new attempts again and again can pave the way to a breakthrough. The aim is to remove the fear of failure for the schoolchildren at an early stage so that later on, they will know no limits. <\/p>\n
1,000 unsuccessful attempts to develop a lightbulb<\/p>\n
Thomas Edison, who invented the lightbulb, is reputed to have made more than 1,000 unsuccessful attempts to develop a marketable lightbulb, and in doing so said about himself: \u201cI have not failed. I just found 1,000 ways to not make a lightbulb.\u201d<\/p>\n
Continuing development and innovations need mistakes<\/p>\n
In a healthy error culture, you can learn from other\u2019s mistakes. The foundation of this lies in trusting interactions among each other, and that means across all levels of a company\u2019s hierarchy. According to Michael Frese, learning from mistakes can lead to more innovations, and openly dealing with errors can promote cooperation within a company.<\/p>\n
KBC actively supports dealing with errors<\/p>\n
And so last Thursday, the first #failnight took place in our Munich office. Maximilian Leicht (Director at KBC and organiser of #failnight): \u201cEvery one of us makes mistakes in the day-to-day of our projects. And that is not a bad thing. It is only important that you do not repeat them, and that instead you talk about and learn from your mistakes. Because if you talk to one another, you can profit from the experience of others, and avoid the mistake the next time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The KBC hero\u2019s journey<\/p>\n
In accordance with the motto: \u201cNo success stories, no glossy slides, and no self-congratulation\u201d, at the #failnight every colleague was able to talk in a relaxed atmosphere about errors they had made. To do this, Maximilian Leicht had chosen the well-known storytelling format of a \u201chero\u2019s journey\u201d. Each participant was given a task ahead of time to choose a \u201ccartoon hero\u201d for themselves, and to give them a name and three specific characteristics. The \u201cheroes\u201d were symbols of the experience that could be gained from the mistakes made. And so, in an informal atmosphere, it was possible to talk about negative events and at the same time the focus was on the experience which was able to be gained due to the error. In exchanges among colleagues, at the end everyone worked together to develop ideas to solve the individual errors.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to us that younger colleagues in particular see that mistakes are not something terrible, and that they can also happen to experienced colleagues. At KBC we talk openly about that and learn together from mistakes\u201d, concluded Maximilian Leicht.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"f4_portfolio_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-5109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"\n