An innovative culture needs room for ideas that are not ready yet. If every suggestion must arrive with a guaranteed outcome, people learn to keep uncertain ideas to themselves. We lose the chance to find out which ones could help.
In The Mistakes That Make Us, I explore how leaders can support that learning without treating every failure as something to celebrate. The practical question is: how can we try something new, limit the downside, and use what we learn?
Brook Ward: leave room for an imperfect idea
One example in the book comes from Brook Ward, identified in the book as president and CEO of Washington Health System. He encourages people to accept that trying a new way of doing something can involve failure. An imperfect idea can become the starting point for a better version.
That matters when a team brings a suggestion to a leader. Finding a weakness in the first version is easy. Helping people test and improve it takes more work. A useful response might be, “What problem would this address, and what could we try on a small scale?” That is a question to explore, not a promise to implement every suggestion.
Make the test small enough to learn from
“Fail early, fail often” can send the wrong message. Failure is not the goal. We want to discover what works while avoiding preventable harm. A failed experiment is more useful when we had a clear expectation, kept the risk manageable, and paid attention to the result.
For example, a team might test a revised meeting agenda once before making it the standard for every department. That is a hypothetical example, but the questions are practical: What do we expect to improve? What will we observe? When will we decide whether to keep, change, or stop the experiment?
A small test is not automatically a safe test. Changes involving patients, customers, or sensitive information need appropriate safeguards. The scope of the experiment should fit the consequences of being wrong.
Your response shapes the next suggestion
When an idea does not work, people watch what happens to the person who suggested it. If the response is ridicule, they have learned something about the organization—even if nobody has learned much about the idea.
I would rather ask what the team expected, what actually happened, and what they would do differently. That combines psychological safety with responsibility for learning. People can be candid about an outcome and still be expected to follow through.
Recognize the learning, not the damage
Recognition needs care. We do not want people chasing a “best mistake” prize or thinking that avoidable harm is the price of innovation. Recognize the person who surfaced a problem, tested an assumption thoughtfully, or shared a lesson others could use.
Then make the lesson available. What changed because of the experiment? Who else needs to know? If we thank somebody for speaking up but never act on what we heard, the next invitation may carry less weight.
Try this with one idea your team already has
Choose a suggestion that has stalled because it is not fully worked out. Ask the people closest to the work to describe the problem, identify the biggest uncertainty, and propose a manageable test. Agree on the support they need and a time to review the result.
For more on that follow-through, read about building a learning culture after a mistake. Innovation becomes more credible when people can point to what leaders did with the last imperfect idea.
Bring a useful conversation to your team
Start with a free preview of The Mistakes That Make Us. See how the book approaches learning, accountability, and improvement before deciding whether it is right for you.
Prefer to listen? Choose a My Favorite Mistake episode to discuss with your team. To explore these ideas together, bring Mark to your organization or event.