In Praise of Taking Lots of Swings
Bob Sutton, at Work Matters, outlines a strategy for encouraging innovation. The most notable aspect: awarding kill fees for bad projects.
Sutton cites evidence showing that creative geniuses are notorious for leaving long strings of failures in their wakes. However, their failure rates (their batting averages, if you will), are no higher than yours or mine.
[There is] little evidence that creative geniuses have a higher success rate than their more ordinary counterparts; they just take more swings at the ball … The most creative people — and companies — don’t have lower failure rates, they fail faster and cheaper, and perhaps learn more from their setbacks, than their competitors.
One barrier to the (ultimately effective practice) of failing quickly, is the “escalating commitment to a failing course of action.” We’ve all seen this: companies become so heavily invested in a project that killing it begins to seem impossible - even if they know that it might be the right thing to do.
Merck pharmaceutical has gone so far as to institute “Kill fees, [which] pay out serious dollars to scientists who pull the plug on failing projects.”
Ultimately, Sutton puts forth my favorite line: “reward success and failure, punish inaction.”
Reminds me of another favorite quote: “I’d rather get fired for something I did, than something I didn’t do.”