7 tips for failing well & the story of Veuve Clicquot.
Have you ever made a mistake which had ramifications for your Customer?
An innocent mistake whereby in the split second following your realisation, the bottom fell out of your guts and you could feel the prickly heat of embarrassment race up your neck.
You stuffed up and the customer paid the price.
I distinctly remember a nervous moment standing in an operating room when I was green to the game. The spinal surgeon, his eyes focused on the oozy operating site, had tools flying in and out of his hands like a well rehearsed anatomical machine. He called for his implant, “6.5 x 50 mono!”
I froze.
I did not send monoaxial screws. I stood their gazing at our perfectly pre-loaded polyaxial screw (screws with mobile heads). Useless for the lifeless trauma patient in need of stabilisation of their broken spine.
All eyes in the operating room were on me. My body frozen, my mind scrambling for the words to say next.
Annoyed by his break in workflow, he looked up.
I stammered, “I, I’m really sorry. I’ve only polyaxial screws.”
“What? I always use monoaxial screws for traumas. I can’t distract a polyaxial head.”
Instantly the nurses clicked into solving mode & I quickly realised I was learning the most important lesson of my career thus far. While mistakes matter, the reason why they occur do not matter in the moment. The priority is to complete the surgery with minimal disruption, get the job done & the patient off the table.
“What other equipment is in the hospital?” the surgeon asked the circulating nurse.
I was invisible to him.
Within five minutes my equipment was wheeled out and the competitor’s wheeled in. The show went on.
I helped where I could then dissolved into the background before quietly exiting through a side door into a vacant storage room. Like the sterile packed consumables stacked on the shelves surrounding me, I would only be used once. There would be no repeat use of my equipment by this surgeon.
My chance blown.
It was the first and last time I ever made that particular mistake. After my ego recovered from the pummelling, I swiftly shifted gears and created processes to support more thorough preparation on my behalf, including acknowledging my knowledge gaps.
In the words of the world leading expert on psychosocial safety Amy Edmondson, I’d failed intelligently and well. Learning from my lessons and using them as a guide to move forward.
I’ve recently finished Amy’s latest book, Right Kind of Wrong - why learning to fail can teach us to thrive.
Throughout, she combines stories, science and insights into the benefits of failing well and consequences when we don’t. I’d highly recommend!
Failure is unavoidable. It’s a fact of life. It’s not a matter of if. It’s a matter of when.
Thriving begins when we accept our fallibility & learn to fail well. To learn from our mistakes & use the information as a guide forming our future path.
“Everyone fails. Anyone you see succeeding is only succeeding at the things you’re paying attention to - I guarantee they are also failing at lots of other things. The people I respect most are those who fail well. I respect them even more than those who succeed.”
Ray Dalio, 2022
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of Veuve Clicquot?
Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot was suddenly widowed at the age of twenty-seven. Born in 1777 during an era whereby women weren’t allowed to make financial decisions, as a widow, she was allowed to honor her late husband’s memory by continuing his shared dream of a wine business in the chalky soil of the Champagne region.
She chose to take the challenge on herself.
At the time, champagne proved a hard sell. It was little known in the region, white wines prolific at them time. Beyond a handful of aristocrats, few could afford its luxury. The weather was also fickle. Hot, dry summers withering precious grapes.
Barbe-Nicole asked her father-in-law for a loan against her inheritance. He said yes, under one condition. He insisted she apprentice for four years to wine maker Alexandre Jérôme Fourneaux to further learn the intricacies of the craft & trade.
By now Napoléon Bonaparte was well into waging what would become twelve years of war. Shipping & trade restrictions were rife. One year, a third of Clicquot’s stock - over fifty thousand bottles - was ruined due to an extended stopover in Amsterdam. Moreover, hardships of war meant the small customer base they had weren’t often in the mood to celebrate.
Barbe-Nicole wrote to a great grandchild, “The world is in perpetual motion, & we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined & exacting, & let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity!” In other words, play to win.
When the war ended, shipping & trade blockages were lifted. Barbe-Nicole secretly chartered a boat to smuggle over ten thousand bottles of her best champagne - the 1811 comet vintage - to St Petersburg, beating out her competitors. Wine merchants were said to fight on the dock to buy her champagne. They’d pay any price. Czar Alexander made the Veuve his favourite.” (1)
The rest is history.
Even back in the eighteenth century, Barbe-Nicole knew what she didn’t know. She had the courage to embrace it. Regardless of what judgemental bystanders thought or said.
Her gritty nature didn’t give a damn.
“It’s difficult to like (& not be bored by) people who only boast about their accomplishments, especially when those boasts are delivered with a dash of arrogance.”
Amy Edmondson
Failing well is a mindset. A humble choice we make to focus on the opportunity for growth. Here are seven tips to maintain motivation momentum following failure:
Measure yourself on progress rather than distance from an ideal state.
Focus on what you want to improve rather than getting bogged down in what you did wrong.
Reframe an intelligent mistake as a “good catch”.
Celebrate the pivot. Focus on where the story goes next. Bring success rather than shame.
Be bravely accountable.
Learn to apologise sincerely & well.
Encourage failure sharing. It makes us more relatable, likable & human. Particularly with our customers.
Lastly, be mindful of perfectionists. They are particularly vulnerable to set backs & failure. An inextricable link between the character trait & mental ill health.
So pour yourself a glass of Veuve, put your feet up & celebrate your latest lesson from failing well!
Peta x
Sales Coach | Consultant
Mental Health Speaker for Beyond Blue
Author of My Beautiful Mess - living through burnout & rediscovering me
Founder of Momentum Mindset™ - finding healthier ways of selling without compromising performance
(1) Edmondson, A. (2023) The Right Kind of Wrong. PRH. UK..