Reflection 25 of 52: Can we learn from failure workshops?
June 23, 2014
During a
recent planning workshop, a participant suggested a follow up forum dedicated
to sharing initiatives that failed. People in the room responded quickly with
their desire to attend. They said they could learn so much from other people’s
errors and it would stimulate great dialogue. At first blush, I thought that
might not be the best approach to creating good practices. I have read so much
about focusing on the bright spots to stimulate good ideas; I really could not
get my head around this one.
The participant
mentioned a report about failures from Engineers Without Borders Canada as a case in
point. So many of the failure stories had communication as a root issue. Now, I was intrigued.
The more
I thought about this, the more it made sense. People can learn from other's
mistakes; we just need to find ways for people to share their missteps in a
safe environment and include methods for rectifying the problem.
So, is
this a bit like slowing down to check out a car accident or do people really
learn from other people’s screw ups? A bit of both, I imagine.
I was a part of a group of seasoned professionals who shared what we would do differently knowing what we know now. The event had a record turn out.
I overheard people commenting on how great it was to know the speakers had
made mistakes and survived to tell the tale.
I have
been contemplating how this might translate in the Twitterverse. So many people
keep messing up with their tweets. We hear about new disasters daily but the
boo boos continue.
Would it
have a greater impact on tweeters if we held workshops with speakers who would
candidly share how one dumb tweet changed their lives? Followed, of course, by tips for avoiding
communication regret and how to rebuild after the fact. Typically the people
who goofed disappear into the background quickly and their corporations live with
the bad tweet touted at every social media workshop.
Think of
US Airways 400,000 Twitter followers who were exposed to the woman with a toy
airplane inserted into her privates. Then contemplate the 6.9 million Google
hits and massive news coverage about this story. I still have trouble getting
the image out of my head.
We had
one high profile client who asked us to scare the sh*t out of their employees
before a large national public event. They wanted us to show how easy it was
for us to get into their social media space and how we could use the
information to their disadvantage. People were running out of the room to
change privacy settings.
So what
do you think? #FailureWorkshops – would they work? I think they might.
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2 comments
I think this type of workshop would be of huge value. When we write communications plans for clients - one of the things we do in the initial brainstorming meeting is to highlight a few high profile failures - social media, community engagement, internal communication etc. - and discuss how they happened and the reasons behind the failures. This approach helps us as we go through the process and planning - the client is aware of the potential challenges and understands that success takes a strategic approach, resources (human and budget) and a commitment for the longer term.
ReplyDeleteA workshop that showcases behind the scenes of the failures - what went wrong, why and how it could be different - would be of exceptional value.
Thanks Ruth, the more I think about this, the more it makes sense.
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