Learning Culture: Why Risk Taking And Failure Are Essential To Progress

Being afraid of failure is suppressing innovation. Organisations must accept that an element of risk is essential to adopting a learning culture.

The #Fail has become a label that no one wants to be associated with. Today, with social media following us around, #Winning is what we are all striving for!

”Building a culture where risk-taking and failure are not frowned upon but instead invite learning has to be the future”.

The word ‘fail’ has created a culture where slipping up simply isn’t an option. This could be due to the fact that we are unable to make a second impression. Once we hit ‘send’ or ‘enter’, we’re committed! However, surely, one of the ways to learn is by having the occasional slip up? Trying to create a learning culture that gives the freedom to flourish when really, there is nowhere to hide is conflicting.

Stress management

Failure is not the enemy

Not allowing failure could be an hindrance to learning as we will start to breed a culture of people who are risk-averse and self-conscious. This in turn, suppresses the learning process and innovation simply cannot occur. Many people have a negative view of failure, but it is actually an essential tool for character building. Failure makes us stronger and more resilient. People who are used to failing tend to develop persistence and create new ideas in the face of difficulty.

Take risks to unlock creativity

Organisations that ensure the process of learning, enable fluid creativity, and allow open-minded collaboration helps address the failure fear factor that many people may have.  It turns out that building confidence can help in overcoming the fear of risk-taking and unlock creativity.

Culture is king

Cultural change can take years to be fully implanted in an organisation. The fact is that a lot of workplaces simply don’t tolerate failure. For many people, risk-taking or failing is not part of the job description. Employers need to ensure that the learning environment they shape is safe enough to accommodate failure. A lot of leaders are quick to punish and slow to forgive when mistakes are made. This could have a detrimental impact on the culture of organisations. Creativity thrives in situations where boundaries can be pushed, rules can be broken, and experiments can take place.

The cycle of success

Taking a risk to achieve a goal requires courage to face the fear of uncertainty. No matter the outcome, we grow through the process and become more resilient and confident. This helps to improve the chances of achieving future goals.