by Dr. Heléna Kate | Feb 21, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
According to Adapt, “success comes through rapidly fixing our mistakes rather than getting things right first time.” To prove his point, Harford cites compelling examples innovation by trial-and-error from visionaries as varied as choreographer Twyla Tharp and US Forces Commander David Petraeus.
I interviewed Harford over email to dig deeper into the counter-intuitive lessons of Adapt. What follows is a series of key takeaways on the psychology of failure and adaptation, combining insights from our conversation and the book itself.
The Wrong Way To React To Failure
When it comes to failing, our egos are our own worst enemies. As soon as things start going wrong, our defense mechanisms kick in, tempting us to do what we can to save face. Yet, these very normal reactions — denial, chasing your losses, and hedonic editing — wreak havoc on our ability to adapt.
Denial.
“It seems to be the hardest thing in the world to admit we’ve made a mistake and try to put it right. It requires you to challenge a status quo of your own making.”
Chasing your losses.
We’re so anxious not to “draw a line under a decision we regret” that we end up causing still more damage while trying to erase it. For example, poker players who’ve just lost some money are primed to make riskier bets than they’d normally take, in a hasty attempt to win the lost money back and “erase” the mistake.
Hedonic editing.
When we engage in “hedonic editing,” we try to convince ourselves that the mistake doesn’t matter, bundling our losses with our gains or finding some way to reinterpret our failures as successes. We’re so anxious not to “draw a line under a decision we regret” that we end up causing still more damage while trying to erase it.
The Recipe for Successful Adaptation
At the crux of Adapt lies this conviction: In a complex world, we must use an adaptive, experimental approach to succeed. Harford argues, “the more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error becomes.” We can’t begin to predict whether our “great idea” will actually sink or swim once it’s out there.Harford outlines three principles for failing productively: You have to cast a wide net, “practice failing” in a safe space, and be primed to let go of your idea if you’ve missed the mark.
Try new things.
“Expose yourself to lots of different ideas and try lots of different approaches, on the grounds that failure is common.”
Experiment where failure is survivable.
“Look for experimental approaches where there’s lots to learn – projects with small downsides but bigger upsides. Too often we take on projects where the cost of failure is prohibitive, and just hope for the best.”
Recognize when you haven’t succeeded.
“The third principle is the easiest to state and the hardest to stick to: know when you’ve failed.” The more complex and elusive our problems are, the more effective trial and error becomes.
How To Recognize Failure
This is the hard part. We’ve been trained that “persistence pays off,” so it feels wrong to cut our losses and label an idea a failure. But if you’re truly self-aware and listening closely after a “release” of your idea, you can’t go wrong. Being able to recognize a failure just means that you’ll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed.
Gather feedback.
“Above all, feedback is essential for determining which experiments have succeeded and which have failed. Get advice, not just from one person, but from several.” Some professions have build-in feedback: reviews if you’re in the arts, sales and analytics if you release a web product, comments if you’re a blogger. If the feedback is harsh, be objective, “take the venom out,” and dig out the real advice.
Remove emotions from the equation.
“It’s important to be dispassionate: forget whether you’re ahead or behind, and try to look at the likely costs and benefits of continuing from when you are.” Don’t get too attached to your plan.
“There’s nothing wrong with a plan, but remember Von Moltke’s famous dictum that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. The danger is a plan that seduces us into thinking failure is impossible and adaptation is unnecessary – a kind of ‘Titanic’ plan, unsinkable (until it hits the iceberg).” Being able to recognize a failure just means that you’ll be able to re-cast it into something more likely to succeed.
Creating Safe Spaces to Fail
Twyla Tharp says, “The best failures are the private ones you commit in the confines of your own room, with no strangers watching.” She rises as 5:30 AM and videotapes herself freestyling for 3 hours each morning, happy if she extracts just 30 seconds of usable material from the whole tape. This is a great example of a “safe space to fail.” But many of us don’t have this luxury of time or freedom. So how do we create this space?
Practice disciplined pluralism.
Markets work by this process, encouraging the exploration of many new ideas as well as the ruthless weeding out of the ones that fall short. “Pluralism works because life is not worth living without new experiences.” Try a lot of things, and commit only to what’s working. Finding “a safe space to fail is a state of mind.”
Assuming that you don’t operate a nuclear power plant for a living, you can probably infuse a bit more freedom and flexibility into your workday. Give yourself permission to test out a few off-the-wall ideas mixed in with the by-the-book ideas.
Imitate the college experience.
“College is an amazing safe space to fail. We are experimenting with new friends, a new city, new hobbies and new ideas – and we’ll often mess up academically and socially as a result. But we know that as long as we don’t screw up too dramatically, we’ll finish college, graduate, and move on – that mix of risk and safety is intoxicating. Yet somehow as we grow older we lose it.”
Sarah Rapp writes for 99u, a creative resource for making ideas happen.
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Jan 25, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
The time has come to write. I feel this on an almost cellular level. Why? Because I\’m sitting in my writing chair, wearing my writing glasses, chewing my writing gum. Now, I could sit in this chair, wear these glasses, and chew this gum while knitting tea cozies, juggling jelly beans, and husking corn (just not at the same time). But I wouldn\’t. See, I write at home, and I\’ve learned the hard way that unless I strictly divide my writing time from everything else, my work bleeds into my home life. Then I can never relax, because, just like an ax murderer in a horror movie, my work is always lurking.
These days almost all of us work at home to some extent. Maybe you spend evenings brooding over spreadsheets from the office. Maybe you\’re in the house all day doing the hardest work imaginable: caring for the young, the old, or the ill. Or maybe, like me, you have a job—sort of—but no official physical workplace. All of which is to say that when I talk about \”home\” versus \”work,\” I mean the activities that replenish your energy versus the ones that drain it. In an age when bleed-through is the new normal, it\’s more crucial than ever to separate the two. Here are some strategies that help me.
1. Establish a replenishing inner \”state of home.\”
Some people spend years in an office cubicle without ever feeling the energetic involvement of real work; others do brilliant, inspired work without ever leaving their bed. This is because both work and home are first and foremost states of mind. So to begin separating your work life and home life, we\’ll concentrate on creating a mental \”state of home\” inside your head.
To do this, focus on memories that feel relaxing, nourishing, replenishing—in a word, homey. Remember baking with your grandmother, or talking with your sister, or snuggling in bed with a loved one (fabulous sex is an excellent way to feel at home, as is cuddling with your beloved collie—just not at the same time).
If you don\’t have many homey memories, your mental state of home may feel tepid at first. Persist! Remember the most comforting times and places you can: the branches of the tall tree where bullies couldn\’t reach you, Uncle Joe\’s bomb shelter, the warmest corner of the prison yard. (Ideally, you\’re looking for a sense of joyful replenishment, but happy relaxation is nearly as good, pleasant neutrality will do, familiar boredom is better than nothing, and defensible concealment—well, you get the idea.)
Once you come up with three memories that qualify, hold in mind the feelings they bring, while silently repeating, \”Home. Home. Home.\”
Read step two in tomorrow\’s!
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Jan 23, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
You have 1440 minutes between right now and this time tomorrow. Only 1440 minutes. How will you use that time? One percent of that time is about 15 minutes. What, you ask, is so important about 15 minutes? It is a block of time that\’s small enough to make room for and large enough to get something significant done.
My most important strategy to get more done every day is simply to always be ready. When you are ready, you have what you need when you need it. This means you can use \”found time\” productively to move your business forward.
I can hear you asking: \”What is \’found time\’\”? Have you ever been to a meeting that didn\’t start when planned? Far too many meetings start several minutes late. When you are ready to use those \”found\” 15 minutes, you can effectively make a dent in all you need to get done each day.
For example, when I have magazine articles I want to read, I tear them out of my magazines and carry them with me for a day or two. Then when — not if — \”found time\” appears, I use it to read those articles. This helps me stay in touch with what\’s happening in my industry, making me more effective with my clients.
In my experience, many people use \”found time\” to check their email. While this may seem productive at the moment, it doesn\’t always move you forward on your long-term goals. When you really look at your goals, there are often tasks that would help \”get you there\” that take between 15 to 45 minutes to complete. Get clear about what tasks you can accomplish in 15 minute chunks. Then, always be ready with what you need to accomplish that task. You will immediately become more productive.
A good exercise is to make a list of 20 to 30 tasks you can accomplish in less than 15 minutes. I keep and update this list in Evernote all the time. This is not a list of to-dos, but rather the extras. Then set yourself up with the supplies or information you need to complete those tasks. Make sure the needed items are with you when you go to meetings, leave the office or otherwise suspect you might have a bit of extra time. By being ready, you can take advantage of these windows of opportunity.
One of my favorite uses of \”found time\” is to write thank you cards. Watching for people to acknowledge and thank also makes my day better. Plus, thank you notes touch people in a unique way. In fact, I write at least one thank you note each week. This means I send a minimum of 52 hand written — yes, always by hand — thank you notes a year.
Of course, I accomplish this by always having note cards, envelopes and stamps with me. When a meeting is late, I can quickly jot a note of thanks, pop it in the envelope and send it off. Expressing gratitude is a fabulous use of \”found time.\” Plus, saying \”thank you\” makes the recipient feel valued, sets you apart from the crowd and leaves you feeling good.
So my favorite strategy to being more productive is to always be ready. Take time to figure out how your day is likely to unfold and make sure you have the supplies you need with you. When you are always ready, you can truly get more done each day.
Jason W. Womack is founder of The Womack Company, a productivity-training firm based in Ojai, Calif. He is author of Your Best Just Got Better: Work Smarter, Think Bigger, Make More (Wiley, 2012).
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Jan 21, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
When it comes to being successful, high achievers have a number of habits in common. But that doesn\’t mean you can\’t be right up there with them.
Here are three qualities all successful people share and how you can make them your own:
1. Say \’no\’ to distraction. Every. Single. Time. Successful people make better use of their time because they are disciplined goal-setters. I’m referring to those high performers who experience no down-time. Sure, there are vacations and time spent with the family, but that comes after success has been achieved.
Successful people have that same list of tasks to accomplish as anyone else, but the difference is they make time to get them all done with no excuses. They may not enjoy it, but that is irrelevant. What matters is that it gets done. They are disciplined in planning their work and sticking to their plan.
Even when you’ve achieved that level of success, the work doesn’t stop. I am always on the lookout for a great, profitable investment. I might be out with my family, but my brain is always aware of business opportunities around me. I don’t just shut it off when I’m not at work.
2. Read something new everyday. Successful people read constantly, find mentors who can teach them and value new information that can help push them forward. Whatever field you are in, you have to learn before you earn. Learn your product, customers and competition. And then: keep learning.
3. Flaunt your failures like a champ. Fail as many times as you can. Everyone fails. It’s part of life. Too many people take failure as a sign it\’s time for them to give up. Those people don’t get very far. What sets successful people apart is the ability to get up and give it another go with a better plan for how to be successful the next time around.
If you want to embrace the habits of successful people, you’ve got to make the change within yourself first.
Reblogged from Entrepreneur Online.
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by Dr. Heléna Kate | Jan 2, 2014 | Dr. Heléna Kate's Blog
As a label, the word “entrepreneur” really is fascinating. When my friends and I were starting up our first Virgin businesses in the early ‘70s, no one seemed to understand what we were doing. Some important people called us entrepreneurs, but they used the word in a derogatory way, hinting that we were adventurers, out to upset the order of things, and perhaps not to be trusted. We certainly didn’t describe ourselves as entrepreneurs at that time, because that would have been met with some strange looks.
These days, the number of people who are working as entrepreneurs has increased so much that that this career path almost qualifies as a lifestyle choice. Defining “entrepreneur” has become more difficult because it now means so many different things to so many different people — all of us speak from our own experiences.
The thing is, our critics were partly right: We really were out to disrupt the order of things. Then and now, when we’re starting up a new Virgin business, we don’t just want to carry out a simple moneymaking exercise, but to make a positive change in people’s lives and give consumers a better deal. Whichever product or service we offer, we want it to be a lot better than all the rest.
Our approach, which I would describe as entrepreneurial, has proven to be a real advantage. For instance, all but one of Virgin Atlantic’s original competitors have gone out of business since we entered the market in the ‘90s. This happened for a number of reasons, but probably the most important one was their lack of innovation and bravery. We noticed this first when Virgin’s move into air travel was met with skepticism, and then after we showed the critics that air travelers wanted a different type of experience — flights that included entertainment and terrific service — we saw that most of our competitors were too slow to react.
From my perspective, an entrepreneur isn’t just someone who launches a business; the desire to innovate then prompts that person to keep on striving to make positive changes. Companies need to be flexible: This starts with the people at the top, who must have a real desire to disrupt new markets they enter, and to react nimbly to changing circumstances at established businesses. It’s also probably fair to say that you can be successful in business without being an entrepreneur — keeping the money coming in steadily without looking for the next opportunity to expand and improve.
What makes the difference is fearlessness. The best businesses offer a product or service that has never previously been available. While you can almost always conduct research and test the marketplace before a launch, an entrepreneur will always be, to some extent, jumping into the unknown, as the very nature of a new product means you’re venturing into new territory.
Very young people often have an advantage here, since they can approach business challenges without fear because they have nothing holding them back, no commitments, and in many ways nothing to lose. As a person’s career progresses, considerations such as looking after one’s family and paying the mortgage come into play.
If you think you have a game-changing idea and you too have such responsibilities, you are facing a true test of an entrepreneur. The best way to handle this is to not to let such factors rule your decision-making process, but to integrate them into it. Prepare for failure, protect your downside, and then go right ahead with the launch.
The other part of the equation is resilience. Despite the most careful planning and preparation, the vast majority of startups fail within the first year of business. What does this tell us? That entrepreneurs must not only cope with failure, but welcome it. There’s no shame in admitting that something isn’t working and going back to the drawing board — we’ve done our fair share of that at Virgin. This ability to bounce back will make the difference, allowing you and your team to apply yourselves to new goals wholeheartedly, without looking back. So an entrepreneur is many things: a job creator, a game-changer, a business leader, an innovator, a disruptor. Most importantly, that entrepreneur is you, if you want to be one badly enough.
Let’s hear from readers: Do you consider yourself an entrepreneur, or a businessman or businesswoman? Which label do you prefer?
reblogged from www.entrepreneur.com Richard Branson is the founder of Virgin Group, which consists of more than 400 companies around the world including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America and Virgin Mobile. He is the author of six books including his latest, Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won\’t Teach You at Business School (Portfolio Trade, 2012).
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