Individual Strategic Planning

The Case for Failure - Part 2

Some of the areas where you can find these patterns are listed, below. They are:

• Cognitive elements – an observer might see evidence of speech or thinking which we call self-talk or self-speak (things said aloud) of successful people. The use of positive affirmations is an example of this success clue. Self-deprecation, on the other hand, may be an indicator of other patterns.

•  Affective elements – in general people are aware of the “moods” or emotions of people in their lives. Personal development authors often write about the necessity of controlling how we re-act to stimuli around us. Successful people also react to the stimuli, but, with less ‘”negativity” or with action designed to mitigate, negate, or prevent the recurrence of a perceived negative situation.

• Behavioral elements – these success clues can be as simple as offering a warm smile to the people one meets, maintaining eye contact with those one speaks to, giving positive feedback to others, or a host of other behaviors designed to entrain (bring into accord with) the aspirant with those she chooses to be like. The absence of these success behaviors may be another indicator of patterns that may be “undesirable”.

• Physical or environmental elements – what kind of artifacts, toys, or personal belongings would one expect to see during a visit with a successful person? Although there is no hard and fast rule, one might find a well-selected office space, information on competition or thought leaders in the relevant field, possibly awards or testimonials from satisfied clients, and sometimes evidence of an upscale lifestyle.

•  Models / systems – often times a successful person will codify her path to success, perhaps she will have written books, articles or had them written about her. Her mentors, systems, tools, networks, and methods may all be detailed for the benefit of customers or the public – who wish to replicate her success.

•  Explicit knowledge – the objective information that exists in the discipline – in the form of books, audio-visual materials, web pages, articles, press releases, court records, and other materials – public and private.

•  Thought Leaders – There are women and men who stand out in success literature or personal development literature as the embodiment of the techniques and principles which they teach. A Professional Interest Community can position itself to de-stigmatize failure and teach others the role of failure in all of our lives as it appears as a constant companion for most (all) people – even students.

 

To Champion Failure

Failure has its “champions”, too. The following list of thought leaders is preliminary. Only one work from each author is listed - though some have multiple contributions to the body of knowledge.

1. Drs. Mark Cannon  and Amy Edmondson– “Failing to learn and learning to fail (intelligently): How great organizations put failure to work to improve and innovate”
2. Dr. Sidney Finkelstein – “Why Smart Executives Fail”
3. Drs. Richard George and John Stanton– “Success Leaves Clues”
4. Mr. Robert Latino – “Root Cause Analysis”
5. Dr. Charles Manz – “The Power of Failure”
6. Dr. John Maxwell – “Failing Forward”
7. Dr. Paul Nutt – “Half of Business Decisions Fail…”
8. Mr. Tony Robbins – “Ultimate Power”
9. Mr. Philip Schultz – “Failure”
10. Mr. Lou Tice – “Investment in Excellence for the 90s”

 

My Current Interests

Each of us will stake out areas of failure analysis and management that resonate with our interests and abilities. My interests include:

1. The Continuum of Practices, i.e. best practices, good practices, and worst practices - attributes and applications of each.
   
   
2. Strategic Injection Points - points in a process, method, or system that are susceptible to (or appropriate for) the advent of failure, success, or knowledge.
   
   
3. Reversal points - a hypothetical moment wherein one (begins to) turns lemons into lemonade or “pulls failure out of the jaws of success”.
   
   
4. Critical Failure Factors - attributes or conditions that promote or are conducive to failure occurring.
   
   
5. The decomposition of solutions into problems.
   
   
6. The lexicon of failure and the impact of its use, if any.
   
   
7. The genesis of failure - incipient failure.

       8.  Viral failure…thresholds / metrics…recognition of clues to…

      9. The problem-solving and decision-making nexus to failure analysis and management.

     10. How success subsumes failure and/or how failure subsumes success.

 

How Does One Get Started?

You can begin by reading the books, articles, and obtaining the resources listed under the heading ‘To Champion Failure’, above. You can also locate the thought leaders web sites [via an Internet search engine] to explore their work in more detail. These materials will represent your tool box of failure analysis and management knowledge, which can serve as a tremendous aid in navigating your way to even greater successes. However, there is more you can do in terms of beginning to recognize failure patterns. It would be helpful to have a writing pad in front of you to make a few lists:

• Reflect on the esteemed leaders in your field. Using the Pattern Recognition information, above, list the cognitive patterns, then the affective patterns, then the behavioral patterns, etc. that you can ascertain from your knowledge of the person(s) or you may use biographical information.

•  Now reflect on an individual who has had a public failure or a private case that you are familiar with. Continue to use the Pattern Recognition info and list the patterns that are apparent to you.

• Finally, reflect on the traits and behaviors you have. List patterns you have in each category – first successes and then failures. An interesting adjunct to this activity is to obtain feedback from a family member or best friend regarding your patterns - cognitive, affective, behavioral, etc.

 

Concluding Remarks

The time is near when failing will no longer be marginalized and subject to professional and personal quarantine by those around the unfortunate soul who, in all likelihood, was making progress towards a worthwhile goal.

Identifying and studying the clues of success and of failure will enrich the lives of all who strive to have more, to be more, to do more, and to share more of themselves. The envisioned CoP will be an important tool in bringing thought leaders together to map out the learning and knowledge requirements for this noble endeavor.

With our metaphorical sonar and radar gleaned from failure analysis and management, we can boldly navigate the waters of success – until our success ship safely docks – bearing its gifts for you.

 

The Case for Failure - Part 1

Introduction

Recently, I began contacting thought leaders in the field of human failure analysis and management to promote the idea of forming a Community of Practice (CoP) based on the subject of humans and failure. I suggested a project for this CoP, i.e. developing a Failure Management Book of Knowledge (FMBOK). The Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a useful model of what this document might look like.

My desire to help others achieve success had its genesis in the workshops that I designed and conducted for clients of local social service agencies during the late 1980s and 90s. Those 3-4 day workshops covered topics, e.g. self-image, self-esteem, and self-efficacy; communication; motivation; job search techniques; networking; and more.

The social services agencies helped the unemployed – both short-term and long-term, displaced homemakers, long-term welfare recipients, ex-offenders, youth, and people in major life transitions. Many of the participants who came to or were directed to our workshops appeared to lack basic knowledge, skills, and sometimes the attitude necessary to getting and keeping a job. Once acquired, the skills, knowledge, and the success-oriented attitude could be transferred to other areas of the participants’ lives. Generally, the areas that we concentrated on to help participants included:

1. Scenario Planning – the interview is an area in which participants learn to do advance planning [as opposed to making it up as one goes]- by practicing how to answer and ask questions during the interview – from the comfort of a workshop. The participants also learned “how to” information to prepare for the interview as well as how to follow-up after the interview.
2. Entry Strategies – most people can insinuate themselves into activities or groups that they want to be a part of, but there may have been a more optimal “entry” strategy than the one that they chose. Youth, also, benefit from the knowledge of entry strategies by learning how to initiate associations with healthy groups and activities.
3. Operational Strategies – once inside the new group or activity – what then? Operational strategies can be or should be an extension of the scenario planning, above.
4. Exit Strategies – no good plan lacks an exit strategy. There usually are a number of options for extrication – if planned for, in advance – preferably along with the planned entry strategy. Youth as well as adults find themselves “trapped” in associations and relationships that are not conducive to their well-being – an exit strategy can help the user to map the way out of the association, relationship, or activity – safely, happily, and easily – in advance of aligning with or joining the group or activity.
5. Debriefing Strategies – whether or not one’s plan is successful, one needs to learn from it. Successful strategies and tactics become a part of one’s tacit knowledge base for use, personally or interpersonally. And, if one is not successful, that failure represents an opportunity to learn the lessons of that endeavor and become better prepared the next time.
6. Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Strategies – to learn more about problem-solving and decision-making one can take a week-long training program from a company like Kepner-Tregoe or read a text book by Professors Anderson, Sweeney, and Williams, i.e. An Introduction to Management Science or read Decision Sciences by Kleindorfer et al. Many major corporations use enterprise software for large-scale problem solving and Decision Analysis.

We do not have to become experts in the areas, above – it should suffice to become conversant in the application of the principles of failure analysis and management and of problem solving and decision-making.

What about Failure?

There are many authors and speakers who write about and speak on how to become successful or financially independent. And that information is useful, in most cases. But for the people who were not able to benefit from the “success formula” contained in the book, lecture, or workshop, more information was needed to help them.

The missing element that appeared to be needed by those success aspirants was a metaphorical sonar and/or radar to chart their way around and through the obstacles along the way. This sonar would “spot” or “chart” the wreckage of other vessels which had passed that way before. Noting pitfalls in terms of previous failures will aid each of us in navigating around and through those known failures and potential hazards in our success journey. The codification of knowledge on failure provides the road maps to success around and through its charted obstacles.

A Note on Critical Success Factors

The term “critical success factors” is discussed at length in strategic planning or project planning activities. Unbeknown to many is the term “critical failure factors”, which also play a role in the strategic planning process – with or without the planners’ knowledge. Failure to acknowledge or understand critical failure factors will not eliminate or mitigate the effects of these critical failure factors. Critical failure factors are attributes or conditions that promote or are conducive to failure occurring, e.g. conditioning, conflict, deception, error, falsity, lack of leadership or vision, wrong or inappropriate metrics, inadequate funding, and a host of other possibilities.

Pattern Recognition

Although there is an abundance of evidence regarding systemic failure in terms of business and government failures, most of us are interested in individual failure – its causes and remedies. Whether we are discussing instances of failure in organizations or with individuals, each entails the recognition of patterns. Personal development guru, Tony Robbins, says that “Success Leaves Clues” – clues to the traits and behaviors necessary to replicate the success that is being modeled. Drs. Stanton and George of Saint Joseph’s University state that “Failure Leaves Clues” in their book, Success Leaves Clues.

Some of the aforementioned patterns become evident on closer examination of a given activity – using a forensic assessment or a “what went wrong” analysis. In general, these theoretical patterns will need more research to be “discovered” or to have theories developed to explain and predict the range and depth of human failure experiences. Some of the areas where you can find these patterns are listed, below. They are:

Introduction to Failure

I have recently published a book entitled “How to Succeed at Personal Planning and Goal-Setting Workbook”. This book can be found on Amazon.com – the URL is: http://www.amazon.com/Succeed-Personal-Planning-Workbook-ebook/dp/B005LVUXJQ/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1 . And the link to my author’s page is: http://www.amazon.com/Jim-Gordon/e/B0034PAAP8/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0 .

With my professional experience, education, and book I make a case for my “credentials” in helping people succeed at establishing and obtaining “goals”. Now, the twist – from the forgoing corpus of information, I also make a case for my “credentials” in analyzing and managing FAILURE – first in my own life, but more importantly in the lives of others.

I have made my pitch to others – who can help – to bring (human) failure and its analysis and (self) management out of the darkness and into the light of being a standalone (social science) discipline. An analog to what I envision can be found in the physical sciences wherein scientists and engineers analyze materials, products, and systems to explain and predict the likelihood of failure – to save lives and money. These scientists and engineers work with failure analysis, root cause analysis, and root cause failure analysis – under well established methods. And, there are professional associations that have helped members to codify the knowledge gained from these diverse groups.

I will make my (actual written) pitch available to readers of my blog in two to three parts - due to its length – starting next week. In the meanwhile, I would like your input regarding the nexus or relationship between failure and success – feel free to add hyperlinks to sites that you have found useful on either or both of these topics.

Think of this excursion or discussion in terms of me offering to teach you how to fail at everything that you attempt – then asking you what would be the value of learning these lessons?

Thank you,
Jim

Is There a Gender Gap in Goal Setting?

In doing the research on what it's like to run and use a blog, I found a lot of great material for conversation. Let's start our first conversation on whether or to what extent there is a gender gap between women and men when it comes to goal setting.

Please take a moment and read the short article on the following link:

http://blog.questionpro.com/2011/01/03/new-research-reveals-goal-setting-gender-gap/

When you are done, please come back to our blog and tell us how accurately the article portrays your experience with goal setting - for you as well as others of your gender, if you know.

Please come back from time to time to read others' posts, too.

Thanks again for your help!