Has fail fast been the mantra upsetting your company’s culture? In this Tough Things First podcast, Ray Zinn contrasts superficial “fail fast” advice with a proven approach: quickly acknowledging errors.
Rob Artigo: I’m a former radio personality and reporter for KGO 810 in San Francisco and a writer. Here with me, once again, is Ray Zinn, the longest serving CEO in Silicon Valley history. Being invited back, Ray, is always an education.
Ray Zinn: Well, thanks, Rob. It’s always an education to be with you on these.
Rob Artigo: This podcast contrasts superficial fail-fast advice with a proven approach that you like to talk about, quickly acknowledging errors, extracting the lesson, and ensuring the same mistake never repeats itself while still driving bold innovation, so let’s get started. You’ve said, “Mistakes are like glue. They stick around if not handled properly. How do leaders create a culture where people own mistakes without fear?
Ray Zinn: By recognizing that we all make mistakes. In other words, you have to understand that you’re not infallible, that you will make mistakes. The problem is not making a mistake. The problem is not correcting it. As you pointed out, it’s that glue factor. I mean, if the glue is improperly applied, the quickest thing is to wipe it off and redo it, as opposed to waiting until it’s hardened and it makes it impossible to adjust and adhere properly, so there’s a balancing act, okay? We don’t want to wait till the glue hardens. We want to get it while the glue, we can wipe it off and start over.
So, recognizing you’re making a mistake is the important thing, and that’s the problem that most of us have, is recognizing, when we make a mistake, we tend to want to think that we’re perfect, we’re infallible, and that we’ll never make a mistake. What I always do, and this is something that I preach in my book, The Essential Leader, is that I test myself. I look at the pros and cons of all my decisions. I don’t just look at the pros. I know that bad things happen. Murphy’s law is that which can go wrong, will go wrong. And so, I test myself. I test my decisions. I never go without validating whether that was a good decision or a bad decision, by looking at what possible mistakes can occur.
Rob Artigo: Yeah. On this podcast in particular, we learn a lot and we have as a reference the book, The Tough Things First, and also The Essential Leader, and you can dive into those pages and learn about how to manage these situations. We also talked about on this podcast, and recently we have about eating the ugly frog and doing that first. Rather than just doing the tough things first, sometimes you have to eat the ugly frog. You got to own your mistakes, and that is recognizing that you’re just human and that mistakes do happen. You’ve got to just roll with it. You’re like, “Okay. That happened,” and now let’s move forward, let’s improve on that, and let’s take that as a lesson learned and not repeat it.” Yeah, that’s a fundamental of the tough-things-first philosophy.
Ray Zinn: Well, I think that’s the error that’s made in politics. I don’t know of a single politician that will own up to a mistake. I’ve never heard one. I’m sure they’re out there, but they’re not very frequent, where a politician will admit they made a mistake or came to the wrong conclusion or decision. So don’t be a politician. Don’t think that the sun always shines on you and that you never make a mistake. The key here is recognizing the mistake early by looking at, as I said, I look at all my decisions and look at the downside. I look at what can go wrong, as Murphy’s law states, so that I don’t wait until the mistake happens. I anticipate it. I call it anticipating mistakes, because you will make them, so question your decision. Question, question, question.
Rob Artigo: Well, on this podcast, we have a lot of listeners, and many of them are presently leaders in some role. Some of them are future leaders, and maybe they don’t even know it yet, and others are just trying to improve themselves so that, when they become a leader, that they’re prepared and can handle the tasks, so what practical steps can they take to learn from their mistakes without falling into the fail fast trap?
Ray Zinn: Okay, so when you have a decision to make, look at the pros and cons. You should have as many cons as you do pros. If all you see is upside, I guarantee you your decision’s going to be questionable. And so, before you have to decide, go through that process of looking at the downside, what can go wrong, will go wrong, so that when something does go wrong, you recognize it immediately and you correct it immediately.
Rob Artigo: I’ve learned, from talking to you over these recent years, and I get the pleasure of being able to do that, I get to ask you a whole bunch of questions and learn from you right on the spot in real time. That’s what’s cool about this podcast, is we get to share that conversation with so many different people, but I’ve learned here that true leadership turns mistakes into one time tuition instead of recurring costs, and that’s what you’re saying about the learning from your mistakes, rather than repeating your mistakes, so thanks for the hard-earned lessons once again, Ray. I really appreciate it.
Ray Zinn: Thank you, Rob.
Rob Artigo: Listeners, dive into Ray’s books, Tough Things First and The Essential Leader, as well as the Zen of Zinn series. If this podcast episode resonates with you, subscribe, leave a review, share it with someone who needs it. Oh, that’s important. Until next time, do the tough things first, starting with owning and fixing your mistakes. Right, Ray?
Ray Zinn: Exactly. Question your decision.
