When considering performance, there is typically more focus
on failure than there is on success. Failures are often noticeable,
well-remembered one-time events that generate high emotions and can affect many
people. There is the idea that teams
learn from our mistakes and failures, and that in order to improve teams must
fail publicly and painfully. It is believed that significant successes must
somehow be rooted in overcoming past misfortunes and failures.
Success can be loud and come with a lot of fanfare as well,
but the fanfare of success tends to fade faster. New challenges pop up and emotions go away quickly
because the team must get back to work, as success tends to bring in more work and generate additional challenges.
As a result, success appears to play a smaller role in
overall evaluation than failure. That is
both unfortunate and counter-productive.
It is unfortunate, because failures are not necessarily what
makes us learn and improve going forward. While occasionally there is learning
that is an outcome of failure, the same learning can also happen without
experiencing the fail. A lot of failures
are unavoidable, but nevertheless result in blame (or self-blame) and reduce
motivation.
Focus on failures is also counter-productive, because
failure is hardly ever the enemy. Failures come from experiments, from aspiring
to reach farther, from ambition. Statistically,
it takes a number of failures to achieve significant success. Without these failures, the success is either
impossible, or a lot less likely.
Success is not the opposite of failure, rather, it is a significantly
different happening. Success often comes
with more work and more responsibility, creates additional challenges, and pushes
the team to work harder. Success
requires active learning and deliberate practice, and there is a need to learn
still more to handle challenges brought on by the achievement. Success encourages ambition and
experimenting, and boosts motivation.
Success is the main driver of future success. It is time to
focus more on success, and less on failure, when considering team performance.
