Failure is Foundational to Innovation
Failure helps you learn very quickly. It is part of the necessary ingredient for growing quickly and transforming. Failure has got a bad rap and we [society and leaders] avoid it like the plague. That means we avoid being spectacular as well.
—Suzanne West
Failing Up
When I first met Jennifer*, she was the CEO of a $1 billion oil and gas company. She carried the reputation of being smart, strategic, and decisive. I learned that she was also an executive who supported learning through mistakes.
Two years before, her CFO had independently made the decision to invest a considerable amount of their cash holdings in AAA-rated securities. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen issues with the issuer of the ...
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