When I was growing up, we played two main sports. Starting in the fall, we played tackle football. We played that until spring, at which time we switched over to baseball in the local vacant lot. Baseball lasted through the summer until fall rolled around again and we took to football. Interspersed with these we played flashlight tag, kick the can, and a number of other pick-up games.
I sometimes wish we had some of the same rules in business that we had back on the sandlot. If something didn’t work out and you couldn’t agree on whose side was right, somebody eventually would yell out “Do over!” No matter what, this meant that you had to reset the play to whatever state it was in before the disagreement occurred. Nobody could question the do over, nobody was blamed for whatever caused the do over—it was just a do over. That was it. Period. Any kid that moved into the neighborhood came preprogrammed for the do over. I don’t think we ever had to explain it—it was just a recognized law in kiddom. Someone calls “do over!” and you do it over.
I’ve often wished we had the do over in business. I’ve come to realize that although it would be great to have a do over in any business aspect, the do over is critical to innovation. It embodies two really important principles behind innovation—prototyping and the fear of failure. In previous blogs we’ve looked at the importance of prototyping early and often: to get feedback quickly, to help figure out what the product or service really should be, to understand what people really want but can't say until they see it, and to eliminate things that don’t work fast. Everyone in innovation knows that your first prototype will likely be thrown away. It’s a built in do over. It’s accepted, nobody gets blamed—it’s part of doing innovation as a business process.
It’s the fear of failure where the do over really shines. The number one innovative-culture killer is the fear of failure. What if I try this and it doesn’t work—do I get a black mark on my permanent record? Is my career at risk? Do I get another chance? What if I actually try something that will pay off in a year instead of next quarter? Will I get beaned if it doesn’t work? The do over mentality takes care of this. Did you screw up? Did you do it fast? Did you learn something we can apply next time? Great! Do over! No questions, no finger pointing. Just a do over.
I started playing a game in the street with a neighbor a few years back. At one point early on, we couldn’t decide if the ball was over the line or not. We looked at each other and said “Do over!” Just like that. So I know that the do over is not something that gets beat out of us or repressed, like some of our creative skills that we have to reignite. It’s innate.
So let’s let it out. Promote the do over. Give people permission in your organization to fail forward. Give an award for do overs. The metric for failure shouldn’t be the failure itself—it should be the learning from the failure. It should be what happens after the do over. The game continues, with nobody punished. Everyone wins because nobody loses over something that was just part of the process.
In a future blog we’ll discuss the one-twice-three-shoot method of making decisions—another sandlot technique that I’ve used in business. It works great, unless someone mumbles and you start to argue over what the person said. If you can’t decide, then of course someone will call “Do Over!” and off you go to make it right. Here’s to the mighty Do Over in your innovating on purpose.
Comments