Today, it’s no exaggeration that ceasing to innovate means being left behind. Fear of making mistakes is a common blocker to innovation. This isn’t only a business challenge, it can also take a toll on mental health by contributing to workplace anxiety and burnout.
What people actually fear are the consequences they think will follow from making mistakes. Given that innovation inherently involves testing and discarding ideas, it entails social risk such criticism, rejection or embarrassment. Sharing ideas and getting things wrong involve taking such social risk.
As a leader you can influence and facilitate the conditions conducive to innovation. Start by auditing the silent messaging your team receives:
- Identify the behaviours that are being rewarded and punished in your team. If you want to encourage innovation, you need to reward behaviours that lead to innovation such as critical thinking, challenging the status quo and asking questions. Leaders often find that they’re in fact rewarding compliance and conformity because this feels good and comfortable
- Understand how messages about reward and punishment are received by your team. Reward can be as subtle as acknowledging what someone has said, or expressing appreciation for what they’ve done. Punishment can be as simple as cutting someone off when they share a contrary view, or becoming fixated on what’s failed. This doesn’t have to happen personally to them; people will take the message from seeing how their peers are treated
- Appreciate that as a leader your example is particularly influential. How do you respond to getting things wrong and making mistakes? If you tend to get defensive or only ever share wins, your team is likely to get the message it’s unacceptable to be less than perfect.
To reignite innovation and support your team’s mental health, take steps to reduce the social risk and alleviate the fear of negative consequences:
- Invite and reward critical thinking and challenge. Listen even when you disagree and then give your reasons as to why you disagree. Others will learn that disagreeing is safe and can be done in a considerate way.
- Celebrate “smart fails”. Not all mistakes are equal. Distinguish between sloppy errors and well-designed experiments that didn’t create the desired result. At your team meetings, don’t just highlight the wins. Reward team members who took a calculated risk that failed. Focus on the quality of their approach rather than the outcome.
- Practice responding constructively to bad news such as when a mistake comes to light or something has broken. Think about subtle as well as overt responses, from smiling and nodding to expressly saying you value what they’re sharing. Note that these responses aren’t contingent on you agreeing with what’s happened or being said.
- Model vulnerability where you share some of your mistakes and don’t pretend to have all the answers. You can include inviting their perspectives to arrive at answers and identifying the learnings from your mistakes.
Incorporating these practices will help to develop a climate of ideas, energy and motivation rather than fear, retreat and self-protection. By lowering the stakes of failure, you can pave the way for your next big idea as well as building a healthier, more resilient team.
