Jordan planned to fail, and measured it.
Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan are two of the biggest failers in history. Ruth held the world record for strike-outs; Jordan proudly boasts that he missed over 9,000 shots in his NBA career. Aiming to fail – not just accepting it – can be a powerful way to give people the confidence and freedom to eventually succeed.
The rule applies equally to generating ideas. Last month, I participated in a series of four Flexible Brains workshops run by Hanne Kristiansen. One of Hanne’s techniques is to set two simple objectives:
- The number of ideas left standing at the end the day
- The number of rejected ideas on the floor
Each idea would be written on a coloured A4 sheet. When it was rejected, we’d tear it into pieces and chuck it in the air like ugly confetti. Failure wasn’t just accepted and expected – it was fun. Throughout the day, we saw scattered pieces of paper gradually coat the floor and our keenness to fail grew. It was clear that the workshops that had more crap on the floor, also had more viable ideas on the wall.
As planners and in agencies generally, we don’t put enough focus on aiming to fail. Here’s a couple easy ways to start:
- Aim to get one idea rejected every day (or 100 each quarter)
- Ask as many crap questions as possible (75% of all questions)
- Hit dead-ends when developing a strategy (5+ per strategy)
- Piss off clients by making them question their marketing strategy (as required)
And most importantly, make sure your managers measure your performance based on failures as well as success. Jordan knew the value of measuring your failure and celebrating failure milestones:
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. And I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is precisely why I succeed.”
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