november, 2012 how to fail spectacularly (and what you can learn from it) michelle gislason,...

November, 2012

How to Fail Spectacularly(and what you can learn from it)

Michelle Gislason, CompassPointMaricela Rios-Faust, Human Options

Dawn Watkins, Women's Crisis Shelter in Southern Humboldt (WISH)

strong field project | 2

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our presenters

Michelle Gislason CompassPoint

Maricela Rios-Faust Human

Options

Dawn WatkinsWomen's Crisis

Shelter in Southern

Humboldt (WISH)

www.strongfieldproject.orgstrong field project


Objectives

•Increased awareness of the connection between failure and organizational learning

•Ability to share a failure story using a storytelling structure

•Identified strategies for embracing failure and learning from it



Write one word or sentence that

describes how you feel about

failure


strong field project | 7www.strongfieldproject.org


www.admittingfailure.com



What was the project or event?What were you trying to do?What was the fail/where did it go wrong?What would you do differently next time (or never do again!)?

What lessons can be learned?


Source: thefailcon.com


What was the project or event? • A bricks and mortar drop-in center to serve a particular community

What were you trying to do? • Trying to be accessible to a client-base and demonstrate commitment to capacity building in region

What was the fail/where did it go wrong? • “Drop-in” clientele is not our sweet spot. • We confused location with presence.

What would you do differently next time (or never do again!)?

• Go with our gut• Focus on impact, not inputs• Don’t be fooled by “Free”

What lessons can be learned? • Assess different strategies• Focus rigorously on what impacts we are

best poised to achieve (go back to our theory of change)

• Trust ourselves AND listen to dissenting voices

• Define the limits of risk-taking and know when to say “When”

• Once decided, commit to strategy, but be prepared to admit “we were wrong”



What was the project or event? ALICE

What were you trying to do? We wanted to streamline our crazy and outdated data collection methods

What was the fail/where did it go wrong?

NO ONE KNEW HOW TO USE IT

NO ONE KNEW THEY DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO USE IT

It didn’t get used; it’s still not being used

Because NO ONE KNOWS HOW TO USE IT


Utilize the expertise available in the field and call upon colleagues for support. We are too busy

Hire consultants if you have to do soWhat lessons can be learned? If it seems easy, and it keeps being NOT easy,

then you may be in over your head

Don’t try to cut corners when it comes to your infrastructure; Don’t reinvent the wheel

If you give a staff person a project, and they have great difficulty in getting it done, DO NOT SET THEM UP TO FAIL by assuming they will figure it out. You may need to reevaluate, step in and start over



What was the project or event? Sustainability Campaign

What were you trying to do? Develop a compelling message that highlighted the need for funding to sustain our programs

What was the fail/where did it go wrong? We got caught up with the idea that to raise more money you need to build new programs. Our “sustainability” communication was confusing.

Deferring to others when we knew what we needed

We committed resources to confirm what we already knew


Engage our program experts and stakeholders in critical conversations.

Know when to say when

Begin with the end in mindWhat lessons can be learned? Begin with the end in mindwhat is going to get

us to a place of high mission impact?

Trust ourselves AND be open to new ideas



What was the project or event?What were you trying to do?What was the fail/where did it go wrong?What would you do differently next time (or never do again!)?

What lessons can be learned?

- Random groups of 4-5; Introduce yourselves and pick a facilitator

- 20 minutes of discussion with 4 minute wrap-up warning

- Presenter may listen in

- Press ‘5’ if you have technical issues



It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.

--J.K. Rowling



Courage allows the successful woman to failand learn powerful lessons-from the failure-so that in the end, she didn't fail at all

-Maya Angelou



When it Happens•Don’t overreact •Name the failure•Take responsibility •Turn it into a positive learning event• Analyze the how and why behind the failure and put strategies into place to turn it into a learning opportunity• Listen and stay curious – what happened and what did you learn? What will be different next time?• Don’t treat it as a cause for punishment



All the Time• Think experimentally and adjust•Create a culture of sharing failures as well as successes•Create a “continuous learning and feedback” mind-set • Reward risk taking •Don’t reward:• Making repeated mistakes • Failing to acknowledge the problem• Failing to take corrective action

• Protect dissenting voices•Define the limits or boundaries of risk-taking and failure• As an organization – open yourself up to risk assessment



Design your life to make effective use of failures.

Most successful enterprises are built through a process of groping and adaptation, not planning.

--David Hartford,

“Why Success Always Starts with Failure”



Next Steps

Share one thing you are going to do as a

result of this webinar



More on FailureFunders

• Annie E. Casey’s New Futures program

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• James Irvine Foundation

• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Hard Lessons)

• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Anthology)

Publications

• Joel Fleishman

Bloggers

• Sean Stannard-Stockton

• Beth Kanter



The greatest glory in

living lies not in never failing,

but in rising every time we fail.


Source: thefailcon.com

thank you!

Contact info: CompassPoint Nonprofit Services

[email protected]

Evaluate this webinar: https://www.research.net/s/FailingSpectacularly

november, 2012 how to fail spectacularly (and what you can learn from it) michelle gislason,...

Documents

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wrongstrong field project

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freewhat lessons

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itmichelle gislason