Are you tired of failure? I am. Tired of the word. Tired of the whole concept. Tired of trying to convince people that ‘failing’ is a good thing. Problem is, in our culture, failing has a negative connotation, and no matter how many ways we spin it, in business, failure simply isn’t an option. And, face it, in our personal lives, who likes to fail? So, instead of trying to change people’s minds about failure, why don’t we just stop using the word? Instead of saying we should ‘fail faster’ why not just say we’re trying a variety of things to figure out what effect they have on the problem we’re trying to solve? Because, in our complex, complicated modern service world of interactions between customers, service representatives and computer systems, chances are there isn’t just one ‘root cause’ of any problem. We’re going to have to admit we simply don’t understand the current situation well enough, and then try out a variety of ideas to figure out which ones help…and which ones don’t! Both equally important! When we use the word ‘failure’, it’s easy to get caught up in thinking about possible negative effects on US…If we keep the fact that we’re striving towards creating the solutions to problems and new services that OUR CUSTOMERS need, then figuring out what doesn’t work isn’t failure…it’s actually success!
