Failure is Not an Option

Recently I live a boyhood dream and met an astronaut! Not just any astronaut either; this weekend I met Jim Lovell. You remember him: his words, "Houston, we have a problem." were made immortal by Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo 13. He now runs a restaurant in the Chicago area (his son is the chef, and a very good one, at that).

I bring this up because as I was climbing the stairs to the dining room where we had dinner, I took my time looking at numerous pictures and memorabilia from Mr. Lovell's career. One of them caught my eye in particular. It was a plaque on which was printed this statement: "Failure was not an option." This was the standard set by Flight Director Gene Kranz when he directed his engineers to find a way to keep the crew of Apollo 13 breathing while the rest of NASA worked to bring the capsule back to Earth despite nearly insurmountable obstacles.

Being reminded of the heroic efforts of the ground crew in Houston during the Apollo 13 mission made me think about the less-than-heroic work that most of us see around us every day. That could change, you know.

What if failure was not an option in your business? What differences would you see if everyone in your company had that attitude? Here are a few that come to mind. You might think of even more.

• Everyone would expect everyone else to perform at their very best every day.

• New employees would ask questions to make sure they learn to do the most challenging tasks correctly the first time.

• Everyone would use all their ingenuity to solve problems. When problems arose, everyone would help out to make sure the problems were not only solved, but eliminated in the future as well.

• All employees would set high goals for themselves and do everything in their power to reach them.

• Everyone would be alert to the state of the business and do everything in their power to improve business results.

• The best employees would willingly coach and counsel the others and pass on their experience and wisdom.

Does this sound like a fantasy to you? Perhaps, but if you cultivate the attitude that failure is not an option, then your employees will soon adopt it too.

I think that attitudes like this one come from two sources. First, they start at the top. The attitudes of the members of any organization nearly always reflect the attitudes of the organization's leaders. The influence of corporate leaders is powerful and wide ranging. Second, it takes practice. One must first adopt an attitude and then act on it day after day until it becomes second nature. Eventually, such a practiced attitude becomes a part of your individual philosophy, your values.

The possibilities are amazing and boundless. What would your company be like, what would the future look like if everyone in your company believed that they could not fail and that the company could only prosper?

Imagine.

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