Motivate the team by rewarding failure, really!
Yes rewarding failure can be a very motivating experience, why? Because often what stops individuals and ultimately teams rising to their full potential is the fear of failure. They don’t take risks or push to higher levels if the atmosphere is, or is perceived to be one of mistakes are not allowed.
As humans we know mistakes are inevitable. I’m not suggesting you reward every mistake but a few well chosen opportunities can go a long way to setting a culture that is accepting of mistakes and learns from them. As well as benefiting from all the innovation and creativity it releases.
So evaluate the mistakes/failures through the following lens and when appropriate choose a recognition technique that best communicates the message and treats the individual or individuals involved with respect.
- Was the mistake driven by someone trying something new and innovative?
- Did the individual and or team learn something from the experience that will be beneficial in the future?
- Were the consequences of the mistake contained and manageable?
- Will the individual or team that made the mistake be comfortable with the details being shared publically?
If you answered yes to each of these questions then it’s an ideal opportunity to use this example to reward the intention of trying to achieve better results. Don’t just reward failure once as it will be seen as a passing idea of the month. That said make sure you reward success more often, it’s great to create the culture of being accepting of failure but you don’t want to go too far in actively promoting it.
