There’s a lot to be said about failure and there are plenty of people out there who want to talk about it and warn you that failure is just around the corner. The answer for most people is don’t try anything risky, in fact don’t try anything at all because you don’t want to fail? Well do you? Failure is just an opportunity to improve. On many occasions the only path to success is via a few failures. The failures straighten out what works and what doesn’t, it takes away the doubt and indecision. Failure is just feedback. Feedback is the only way to improve.
I listen to a lot of participants in training and the majority are concerned with what they might not know, what happens if they don’t get the assessment right, what will happen if the presentation isn’t good, what happens if they can’t get the job they want and the big question, can you tell us how to do it ie take away any chance of failure because I haven’t got time for that! What happened to these questions:
What can I learn?
What can I find out that I didn’t know?
What can I test out in this environment to see if I am right?
How much information can I get from this trainer and the group?
What real lessons can I learn that will prepare me for real work later?
And for beginning trainers, failure (hopefully not colossal) are the only way to become better. My best stories, my most pivotal training experiences, have typically been mistakes, failures and from each one I have learnt life long lessons. So, try new things, make mistakes, learn, learn, learn. And for your participants create an environment where they can fail safely, with good positive feedback and have the opportunity to improve, learn and have fun.
Don’t believe me read this post from Seth Godin. Don’t believe him try this from Hugh Macleod (love his cartoons).
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