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When Failure Is the Best Option
Discover why and when failure could be your secret weapon for success.
Everything until 1862 came easy for U.S. Civil War General George B. McClellan. He graduated at the top of his West Point class, served with distinction in the war with Mexico, became a successful railroad manager, and became the top leader of Union military forces after defeating the Confederates in a small battle near Beverly, Virginia. He seemed to live a charmed life.
However, he never developed the skills to handle setbacks and failures. Commanding the Army of the Potomac, McClellan was repeatedly outmaneuvered by more experienced Confederate generals. Soon, McClellan grew exceedingly cautious, made excuses, inflated Confederate military numbers by two to three times, and even blamed President Lincoln for not sending enough forces.
His extreme fear of failure led him to miss two opportunities to end the Civil War in 1862, including the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day in American history. [My next leadership event at the Antietam & Gettysburg battlefields is May 6-9, 2025.]
McClellan’s example shows the importance of learning from failures. Here are some examples of when failing is better than clinging stubbornly to ideas that aren’t working or doubling down.
6 Examples of When Failing Is Better
1. Testing Innovation and New Ideas
- Scenario: A company tests an innovative product or service, knowing it could fail.
- Why Failure is Better: An experimental project’s failure helps the company learn what doesn’t work without risking the core business. It’s often better to fail quickly and inexpensively in a test phase rather than launch an unproven idea at full scale.
- Example: Many tech companies conduct A/B testing to deliberately push boundaries, expecting some variations to fail, leading to valuable insights.
2. Challenging Assumptions
- Scenario: Business leaders pursue a strategy challenging deeply held assumptions or norms.
- Why Failure is Better: When leaders explore new market segments or operational methods that go against the grain, failure can reveal flaws in old assumptions. This can lead to breakthroughs, pushing the company to evolve or pivot into more successful strategies.
- Example: Netflix’s early shift from DVDs to streaming initially faced skepticism but led to a dominant new business model. Blockbuster rode the old model into bankruptcy.
3. Encouraging Risk-Taking and Creativity
- Scenario: A company fosters a culture of encouraging employees to take risks and explore new ideas.
- Why Failure is Better: Failure in this environment promotes a growth mindset, signaling employees that mistakes are acceptable as long as they learn and improve. This fosters creativity and innovation over a long period, driving success.
- Example: Google’s “20% time” policy allowed employees to work on side projects, some of which failed, while others led to significant innovations like Gmail.
4. Avoiding Bigger, Catastrophic Failures
- Scenario: Small failures are used as learning opportunities to avoid more significant, company-wide issues.
- Why Failure is Better: Small, controlled failures help identify vulnerabilities before they spiral into unmanageable crises. It’s often better to allow small risks to materialize and correct course early rather than suppressing them and facing a massive failure later.
- Example: Agile software development emphasizes iterative failures to catch errors quickly and prevent large-scale product issues.
5. Cultural and Organizational Development
- Scenario: A new leadership initiative aimed at improving culture or decision-making fails.
- Why Failure is Better: Failure in these initiatives can expose underlying cultural issues, resistance to change, or blind spots in leadership. This feedback can lead to better alignment between company values and actions in the future.
- Example: Leadership programs emphasizing open communication and transparency may initially encounter resistance, but this failure can surface communication gaps that must be addressed for future success.
6. Sustaining Long-Term Competitiveness
- Scenario: A company pursues a bold, long-term strategy that might fail in the short term.
- Why Failure is Better: In some cases, short-term failure is part of the price for long-term competitiveness. Companies willing to take long-term bets (even at the risk of short-term failures) often position themselves to outlast competitors.
- Example: Amazon’s early focus on growth over profitability was seen as a failure by some, but it ultimately established the company as a dominant global player.
If you’re facing challenges in navigating failure and learning from it within your own organization, I’d love to help. Schedule a call with me to discuss how you can embrace failure strategically and transform it into long-term success.
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