Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform The Way You Lead

Chapter 9. THE FAILURE IMPERATIVE

In my work with organizations, one big barrier to being open has been a systemic and cultural aversion to failure. When I start discussing the likelihood that things will go wrong when being open and using social technologies, I often see people squirming uncomfortably in their seats. So you're probably reading this chapter with a sense of discomfort—after all, nobody really likes to talk about failure.

But I'm convinced that a key part of being an open leader is the ability to effectively deal with failure, because even with the best structures and planning in place, things go wrong. By mastering failure, you create an environment in which risk taking is encouraged and recovery from failure becomes a skill that ...