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Failure: What Next?

Jasper Welch, DurangoSpace + 4 Corners Management Systems

Failure: Leaving or Learning?

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+ How to deal with Failure? What Next? Overcoming the challenges of Failure & figuring out what to do next? Do I leave (and run) or reflect (and learn)?

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+Concrete Strategies: Ways to Deal with Failure & What’s Next?

n  In life, we all face risk, challenges & potential failure… n Personal, Family, Professional, Moral, Financial, Civic Risks*

*Life challenges ahead: To go over, through, around or wait?

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+Failure according to Whom? (Who decided you failed? Or became a failure?)

n Areas of life engagement: personal, professional, civic, family, financial – you may fail in any of these areas.

n Who decides? The community, your peers, your family, your boss, your family, yourself? Perception vs reality

n We can’t eliminate all risk or failure, but with a process we can reflect, learn from failure & move forward.

n  Successful approaches to what next?

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+Active Approach to Overcoming Challenges & Failures…

Active approaches to overcoming failure…Keid Jensen, Forbes writer

1)  Listen Actively

2)  Thinking Critically

3)  Communicating Transparently

4)  Owning the results, of both successes & failures

5)  Influencing others, including the supporters and critics

6)  Negotiating a favorable outcome

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+Prior to failure, any Strategies? Can Failure be Managed, Avoided or Minimized?

n  Perfect is the Enemy of Good: In many cases, doing a good job and achieving a good result works well. Perfection can be an excellent goal, but may not be realistic.

n  Your Advisory Network: Many failures can be attributed to “going it alone” without advice & good counsel. Who is part of your advisory network? Who do you need to ad as an advisor?

n  Feedback is a Gift: In life, personally and professional we get all sorts of feedback. Do you receive, reject or dismiss feedback? Do you welcome or ignore the messengers?

n  Learning involves Failure: Remember learning a challenging sport, musical instrument, or learning a new skill? You had to overcome failures along the way to becoming competent.

n  Peer Review: Advisory Networks, Mentors & Coaching

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

Risk of Failure in life, be it personal, professional, or in community service cannot be completely eliminated!

+Feedback, Focus, & Failure Processes for Learning from Success & Failure

n  Positive & Negative Modeling & Feedback: How have others you know handled failure well? Not so well? You ability or dis-ability to deal w- failure?

n  Focus: It is all to easy to look back and remain stuck after a failure. Focus on the future, how to change, and what is next. Focus is a differentiator!

n  Rest, Read & Reflect: Take time out to rest, read & reflect as you face failure.

n  Ownership vs. Victim: Owning your part of the failure.

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

Feedback & focus: gathering feedback and learning to focus on reinventing and retraining following a failure.

+Tendencies for Failure & Success “Failure Markers” & “Success Factors”

n Failure Markers?

1)  Thinking that being lucky is the same as being good or skilled

2)  Poor (just bad) judgment

3)  Lack of people skills

4)  Ignoring feedback & advice

5)  Failing to pivot or change

6)  Lacking mentors or advisors

n  Success Factors?

1.  Taking time to learn skills & realizing where you need more

2.  Willingness to learn from those wiser than you (coach-ability)

3.  People skills, including empathy

4.  Flexibility to be able to pivot & adapt to change & feedback

5.  Building an advisory network

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+Being Stuck following Failure Value of recognizing failure & Moving On.

n Being Stuck after Failure…

1.  Struggling to let go of what others did, as compared to what you can do differently in the future

2.  Failure To Implement (FTI): Lots of ideas, but lack of action.

3.  Name & Blame Loop: It’s everyone else’s fault, but not mine.

4.  Unwillingness to accept feedback

n My Next Success Milestones

1.  Creating your mentor & advisory network, that is actively involved

2.  Action planning & implementation, trying again, moving forward

3.  Reflecting on what you can do differently to achieve better outcomes

4.  Taking personal responsibility, making the necessary changes, owning the outcomes

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+What is the Value of Failure? (Assessing Risk & Preparing for Possible Failure)

n Assessment of potential risk and your role(s) in outcomes.

n Using both previous & present feedback loops and metrics as markers (FTI, FTL) & milestones (SF=success factors)

n Utilizing mentors (creating your advisory networks) that address FTI & FTL head on.

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015

+What Questions do you Have? (About Reducing Risk & Addressing Possible Failure)

n Resources

n Books

n Advisory Networks

n Failure to Implement (FTI)

n Failure to Launch (FTL)

n Blaming Others

10/8/15 www.jasperwelch.org – 4CC October 2015