One of the common denominators of successful people is their ability to persevere when things don’t go as planned. Effective people don’t allow themselves to get bogged down in feelings that don’t serve their purpose.
On the other hand, ineffective, unsuccessful people allow their emotions to rule rather than their rational and objective nature. They lament what happened or what didn’t and become victims rather than masters of their circumstances.
We all have disappointments. We all suffer setbacks. If we’re going to attempt anything worthwhile, we’re going to experience failure and setback.
The achievers and truly successful person – only sees failure as feedback. It is part of the formula for success. Failure equals feedback to try again another way. When one method fails, they try again with a new one. Sometimes it takes many attempts.
I suggest a different approach. It’s a process I call, “What Worked, What Didn’t, What’s Next?”
This practice works whether you’re dealing with a business, a relationship, a project or your life. The key is to evaluate often, objectively, and then to move on.
And the more often and impartially you measure and evaluate, the better it works. It’s just feedback-and feedback is neither positive nor negative. It’s simply information. I call feedback the “Breakfast of Champions”. Looking at what happened with a healthy degree of detachment allows us to make better decisions.
What Worked? What Went Right? What decisions yielded good results?
What actions moved us toward our objective and why? What’s worth repeating? What do I need to more of? What felt good? What created excellence? Be as specific as you need to for this to make sense and be useful to apply in the future.
Acknowledge your successes. If it’s a big one, celebrate it. Praise your own as well as the efforts of others.
When you focus on what worked, you begin with positive energy. And you create momentum toward solutions.
What Didn’t Work? What Went Wrong? What decisions ended up being wrong?
OK, where did we screw up? What created the mistake and why? Not WHO dropped the ball, but when, where and how did we drop it? How can we avoid it next time? What do we need to less of? Be as specific as you need to for this to make sense and be useful when you look at it next time.
It’s rarely PEOPLE who mess up but rather systems that don’t adequately support them. Most people mean well and try their best. The focus should be on how to better support one another to reduce errors and increase quality.
There are many ways to accomplish what you desire. Often, in finding NEW ways, we create things we never would have if the first or second effort had succeeded.
Acknowledge the mistakes, make new plans and devise new strategies.
What’s Next? Knowing what I know now what would I do differently?
Regardless of how well or how badly things went, IT’S HISTORY. Nothing is going to change the past. Being upset about it, feeling guilty, placing blame – or even resting too long on our laurels will cause us to lose headway.
One might be wise to use the US Marine Corps acronym, FIDO – Forget It, Drive On. But I would add one more piece; learn from the experience. What’s missing in terms of process or resources?
After you analyze what happened, the question should be, “What’s next?” This takes the focus from what’s happened and places it on where we’re going and what needs doing.
You can quickly go through this process alone or with a group. It can take a few moments or several hours depending on the complexity of the project.
The key is to do it with impartiality and objectivity. Mistakes, corrections and new attempts are merely part of successful ventures. They don’t mean anything; they’re simply opportunities to create excellence.
