RETHINKING FAILURE WITH BARBARA CORCORAN
KEY INSIGHTS
Sometimes the best success come on the heels of failure
Failure and innovation are kissing cousins. You work on one, you get the other.
Build a culture of innovation
How Barbara Corcoran has done that:
She rewards both good and bad ideas from employees-- the idea is to keep the ideas coming.
She allowed herself to fail publicly- it became non-threatening for her employees too
She provided her managers a budget for failure
She provided a mad money budget- for fun, experimentation, discovery (5% of operating budget)
The importance of failing well- what's the difference between the hugely successful and the marginally successful? It's the amount of time they spend feeling sorry for themselves. Success is about resiliency. If people get back up fast, they become thrivingly successful. They're in the habit of failing and they bounce back reflexively and move forward.