It’s time to heal our relationship with failure

This is so important!

Thank you for subscribing to the Disruption Dispatch, which goes out to thousands of disruptors every other week and which always offers a short content piece to help you on your disruption journey and a curated list of Three Good Things that I’m enjoying and recommend.

We must heal our abusive relationship with failure.

We have so much shame and embarrassment about failing! It’s as if making mistakes and natural human error mean something is intrinsically wrong with us. That’s how we react. And that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Fearing and avoiding failure is a death knell for disruption. You can’t disrupt the status quo if you’re frozen with anxiety at the thought of messing up.

That’s what I devoted my livestream to this week. We had a rich discussion about how you and your organization can rethink what “failure” means, and harness it as the valuable data point it is.

Because that is what failure truly is: data.

It doesn’t mean you’re bad or wrong. It doesn’t mean your team is bad or wrong. Failure is information, learning, and insight that illuminates what you need to do next.

I urge you to watch the replay and let it sink in. Our abusive relationship with failure is holding us back from disrupting the sectors that need it. And with the latest climate change report and the wildfires plaguing my home state of California, I hope it’s abundantly clear how much disruption our world needs.

Failure paves the path to disruption.

When was the last time you embraced failure with open arms? Hit reply and let me know.

My Latest:

• Use social media text approved by Charlene for Friday’s LD (Issue 16) to fill out this section. See Column D of the Archive tab, and Column B for the link. 

• How do you build an org capable of seeing the future? Next week I’m sharing how you can help yourself and your team see the future and prepare for the innovation, disruption, and transformation the future needs. Spoiler: no crystal ball 🔮 required! Join me on Tuesday, September 14th at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET on LinkedIn live.

Good Things:

• Good Reads: I’ve been thinking lately about chapter 9 in my book, Open Leadership. In Chapter 9, “The Failure Imperative”, I write about the trust that comes from failure, how to encourage dialogue that fosters trust, and why it’s important to learn from mistakes (instead of chastising ourselves), and more.

• Referral: One of my favorite podcasts is Shortwave, a daily, 10 minute show that discusses the science behind the headlines. I love it because science still evokes a sense of wonder in me, and I begin my day contemplating what a mysterious and wondrous world we live in. And the hosts are funny, smart, and so very human. Give it a listen!

• Resource: Have you updated to the latest version of Zoom? I am loving all the new Zoom apps! A favorite is AI Notetaker by Fathom. It recognizes when someone’s speaking, creates a transcription, allows you to annotate and create to-do items right from the transcript. Zoom apps include games, whiteboarding, project management, virtual backgrounds, and more. Have you tried any yet? What’s your favorite?