Observation, Failure and the Road the Success

Last week, the newly formed product development and innovation team met for our first working session.We had a number of tasks to tackle on our agenda including brainstorming, data mining, ideation and product prototype creation.

One small part of our time together on the first day was spent talking about an article on the Culture of Innovation at 3M. We discussed some of the aspects that seem to contribute to the culture of innovation at this Minnesota-based company known the world over for its inventiveness and innovation.

• We noted that 3M employees are given a percentage of time to work on any project they deem time-worthy and that often, new successful products for the company flow from this "percentage of time” people dedicate to working on their own ideas.
• We recognized the role customer observation plays in understanding the habits as well as the articulated and unarticulated needs of their customers.
• We also talked about the role failure plays on the road to success, the necessity of “being okay” with failure and of knowing that failure is a part of moving forward. Failure is part of the trial and error that is often the mark of innovation and re-invention.

At one point, we slowed the conversation and asked ourselves, “What does it mean to fail”.

Reflecting on this conversation after our meeting, and thinking about the many times I’ve heard people talk about the“importance of failure”, it still sometimes seems like the word itself –failure- is even an obstacle. There can be a palpable difference in the air, an almost hushed silence that comes over people when the word “failure” is spoken, as if the mere speaking of the word has the power make it a reality.

But what does the word “failure”mean? What does it mean “to fail”?

Being someone who likes to go back to the beginning and understand words at their origins, I looked up the word“failure” and “fail” in an online etymology dictionary: http://www.etymonline.com/.

fail

early 13c., from O.Fr. falir (11c., Mod.Fr. faillir) “be lacking, miss, not succeed,”

 

While the opposites “success and fail” are often looked at together, the words that jumped out at me were the first two: to be lacking, to miss.

As we continued our conversation as a product development and innovation team, this is exactly where we ended up going. We uncovered this reality: Just because a product doesn’t hit a home run with our customers right out of the gate, it doesn’t mean that it is over or at its end.

Rather, if something fails, it’s because somewhere in the product, something was lacking or missed the mark with our customers.

So, we figure out what missed the mark and try it again.

THAT is the beginning to reinvention and innovation.

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To read the article on the 3M’s Culture of Innovation:  3M: The Culture of Innovation