How to build a 'failure-friendly’ organization

This week, the International Fund for Agriculture Development held the ”Fail Faire” in Rome, where development experts from different organisations not only showcased their results, but also their mistakes. Why? “Because if we’re afraid to fail, we fail to innovate,” said IFAD President Kanayo Nwanze. The event didn’t aim to be a celebration of failure, but rather a first step of a process that should lead the U.N. agency — as well as other organizations, including the World Bank — to change its culture and make some adjustments to its operational modalities and project management methods to help turn mistakes into future successes. Or to “fail fast, small and forward,” according to Aleem Walji, director of World Bank Innovation Labs. Why do we fail? “We [want] to really create a space where we can learn from our failures and where it’s ok to say [what] things didn’t work [and] what you have learned to avoid repeating the same mistakes,” Roxanna Samii, coordinator of the event and IFAD web manager, told Devex. But why do we fail? There are a multitude of reasons. Development professionals, who spoke under the Chatham House Rule, offered a wide range of reasons why they didn’t succeed: “I failed because I did not see how fast the market was changing; because I didn’t take into consideration the personal history of who I recruited; because I didn’t talk enough with people inside and outside the organisation; because I chose the wrong person; because I had the sense things weren’t going right, but I carried on.” The question to consider is how that happened and how to mainstream productive failure into development organisations. Here are eight key takeaways from the meeting in Rome: 1. Setting a new norm What’s the difference between traditional evaluation strategies and the failure-friendly approach? “I don’t think in the past anyone openly talked about things that didn’t work … We talked abut things that worked and just replicated [those] things,” said Samii. To counter this, she said, IFAD is beginning a process to create a safe space to share failures and lessons learned. Failure-friendly organizations, she asserted, need a new “norm” to talk about successes and failures. “You have to [establish] a cultural norm where it is ok to think differently, it is ok to work differently.” 2. Build a failure strategy How can failure be harnessed within organizations? What changes in programming and monitoring are required to turn failures into successes? How can this approach be integrated into operational modalities? These issues are now firmly on the agenda of a number of international organizations, but there’s a long way to go. “We are not there yet … This is just the beginning. What we have to do now is to say how we want to move this agenda forward,” said Samii. IFAD, however, is likely to invest resources in the re-organization of its project management systems. ”I think those things will happen as a matter of course. The review process will have to be revisited to make sure the learning fits in with the project cycle.” 3. New tools According to Ashley Good, founder and CEO of Fail Forward, it’s necessary to design concrete tools to integrate intelligent failure into the organization. For example, she suggested the publication of a “failure report” or the development of metrics and evaluation criteria for failure. In Samii’s view, this new approach is going to change the ways of reporting back from the ground and the type of information these reports contain. 4. Feedback, quick diagnosis and rapid corrections Feedback loops are too long. Instead of only ex-post evaluations, the challenge now is to know what is happening on the ground in real time and to identify immediately what’s going wrong. Walji explained that the World Bank is studying innovative solutions to gather feedback from its beneficiaries. Good feedback is among the tools of what is now considered the “science of delivery,” which relies on effective data gathering and management. “Phones, for example, are data devices … listen to beneficiaries and use their data to change course,” he said. 5. Redesign the project or stop altogether People waste time and money in projects they should just stop, simply because they don’t want to say “I failed”. In order to “fail small,” you must stop in good time. 6. Technical answers What’s the difference between building a bridge and managing traffic? According to Waljii, one is a complicated issue the other is complex. A complex problem is multi-sectoral and requires the context to be considered in much more depth. “When you move from solving complicated problems to dealing with complex challenges, the answers are often not scalable, they are not repeatable and what you find is that you have to very quickly learn from the failure,” he said. The technical answers taken in isolation are not enough. 7. New skills and expertise Intelligent failure requires adjustments also in terms of human resource management, to attract what knowledge management guru Dave Snowden terms “evolutionary capacity.” Organizations need people able to apply processes, elaborate hypotheses and monitor results. They could require not only traditional experts or staff with MBA educations, but a wider variety of expertise ranging from anthropologists to philosophers. “One of the things we look for is people who have been innovative or who have the capacity to bring new ideas … you need all the different skill-sets,” said Samii. 8. Conformity vs diversity Tim Harford, an economist and author, explained conformity is the first obstacle to productive failure: A diversity of viewpoints is incredibly important, as well as working with people that challenge you. “If in a meeting you say a wrong thing, but different, you can generate social value because in the room there could be someone who has a very good idea, but he is not saying that because of fear of disagreement.” Join the Devex community and gain access to more in-depth analysis, breaking news and business advice — and a host of other services — on international development, humanitarian aid and global health.