High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 636: Why We Need To Fail Fast

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

In this episode, Dr. Cindra shares with us how we can create psychological safety in a culture in which we are a leader. Psychological safety is important because it leads to higher performance, but also people feel comfortable trying new things, asking questions, and admitting mistakes—all which leads to creativity and innovation. This helps us respond to mistakes in a positive and empowering way. Power Phrase this Week: ”I see failure and mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.” Quote of the Week: “If you want to succeed, double your failure rate.”  -Tom Watson, CEO of IBM

Hi, friends. My name is Dr. Sindra Kampoff, a national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. Every week, I'm on the local radio sharing my top tips on exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best so you can accomplish all your dreams. Get ready for a jammed, packed episode focused on practical tips to help you get after your goals and step out of your comfort zone. Let's go. It's time to check in with Cyndra Kampoff, and today's topic is why we need to fail fast. Cyndra, start us off with a quote. I like this quote by Tom Watson. He's the CEO of IBM, or what was, and he said, if you want to succeed, double your failure rate. Double your failure rate. So do you have an example to

start off today with? I do. So several years ago, Google undertook like this massive three-year study on high-performing teams. And they called the study Project Aristotle. And they were looking to answer the question, what makes a high-performing team? And so after conducting 200 interviews, they found actually a surprising finding that the highest performing team had something called psychological safety. And today we're going to talk about how this really impacts culture at your work, your home, or your family, wherever you might lead. Well, what do you mean by psychological safety? Yeah, so basically it is a term and what it means is a person's belief that they can take risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed or if they're going to be punished.

And we actually know employees who experience psychological safety feel comfortable trying new things, asking questions, even admitting mistakes, which, you know, Lisa, impacts the bottom line and helps us be more creative. And so those who experience psychological safety actually feel like they won't be rejected or punished or embarrassed when they speak up. So they're more likely to share new ideas and ways to move forward. And why is this so important when we stop to think about like developing thriving cultures? Absolutely. So the woman who coined this term is a woman named Dr. Amy Edmondson, and she's a professor and researcher at the Harvard Business School. And she thought that when studying high-performing teams, she thought that those high-performing teams would make actually fewer mistakes

than, let's say, low-performing teams. But actually, she found the opposite. She found the highest-performing teams actually made more mistakes. And so the biggest factor was that the higher performers admitted mistakes, and they shared them as really opportunities to learn. They didn't hide them. They were open about their mistakes, and so everyone could learn from them. So what's another way that we could apply this idea of psychological safety? Well, exactly what you titled today is really about failing fast. And this is really important because failure can be really misleading. You know, we think that mistakes are failure, you know, but I think they are only as long as we don't

openly talk about them, embrace them and try new ways to find more information from them or learn from them in a positive way. And so Lisa, even one of my teams that I work with, they reward failure, meaning they give like a trophy to the person or the team that makes actually the biggest mistake, because really their goal is to fail fast and they want people to fail so they can learn how to get to the end goal the quickest. OK, that makes sense. Do you have a final point for us? Sure. My final point would just be, you know, consider how you can help others, you know, that you lead really fail fast and make it OK to fail. You know, there's so much shame around failure, I think, for us personally. And if you don't feel like your, you know, organization or your family or your, you know, wherever you're a part of a team, if they don't support the idea of fail faster, maybe start a conversation about how to change it. And the key is to share, you know, with your team that failure

is actually acceptable and make sure you just don't reward those who just succeed. Can you summarize today for us, Zendra? Sure. I'd say, Lisa, today we really talked about creating psychological safety in a culture, you know, that you're a part of or that you lead. And this is really important because it leads to higher performance, but also people still were comfortable trying new things and asking questions and admitting mistakes. This just helps us, you know, see that mistakes are not failures. That's not who we are. And we can respond to them in a positive way. Cinder, what's the power phrase this week? I like this one. It says, or this is what I say, regulating myself,

I see failure and mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow. Now, Cinder, if people want to read some of your books or maybe listen to your podcast, follow along with your work, where is the best place to go? Sure. I talk about this in my newer book, Beyond Grit for Business. And you can find that if you just go to Dr. Sindra, so D-R-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. And you can find more about our speaking and coaching over there as well. Way to go for finishing another episode of the High Performance Mindset. I'm giving you a virtual fist pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe. And you can more remember to subscribe and you can head over to dr cindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for high performers

where you get access to videos about mindset each week so again you can head over to dr cindra that's d-r-c-i-n-d-r-a dot com see you next week