Jeffrey Zaslow's "Moving On" column in today's Wall Street Journal discusses the challenges faced by Dan Doctoroff, a former investment banker who led New York City's ultimately futile bid for the 2012 Olympics.
Doctoroff spent 11 years on the effort, as well as $4 million of his own money, and he's grappling with the question of whether to support another bid for the 2016 games after such an exhausting and high-profile failure. Zaslow wonders what insights can be gleaned from Doctoroff's example:
Researchers have advice for high-achievers who fail: Try self-deprecating humor. Do extensive postmortems. Allow yourself to dream big again. If you fear being a two-time loser, create a team strategy, so others share the risk. And ask yourself: What was your failure? Was it not reaching your goal, or not giving your all?
Zaslow also talks with Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School who's done some inspiring and thought-provoking work on leadership and organizational change:
Before trying again after failing, Prof. Kanter says, people must ask: Is there still evidence that the dream makes sense? Are you gaining or losing support? Is there more or less competition now? And are you so enthralled with your own abilities that you're unrealistically optimistic?
This analytical approach to post-failure analysis seems particularly relevant in light of a recent comment by David Bradford, senior lecturer in organizational behavior at Stanford's Graduate School of Business:
Bradford says he sees differences between teaching MBAs and alumni who have learned more life lessons: "If you live long enough, you realize that you can fall off the horse and get back on again," he said. "I think many of our MBAs are very much afraid of failure. But those of us who have been around awhile realize that failure is inevitable, and what’s important is how you handle it, not how you avoid it." [my emphasis]
Zaslow and Kanter's advice can help us understand why we failed and whether any given challenge is worth tackling again. But Bradford's telling us something even more important: We will fail, at some point, and it's not the end of the world. Risky ventures are often the most rewarding--psychologically as well as materially--and never failing may simply mean that you never attempted anything worthwhile.
