The Idea of Intelligent Failure
I spent the early part of last week in New Orleans attending APMP’s BPC NOLA event with nearly 1400 other proposal professionals. Sure, there were sessions on the tools of our craft - Microsoft Word, branding guidelines and the like. There was a lot of discussion about Artificial Intelligence and implications for proposal processes. There were even sessions on best practices such as the Bid/No Bid decisions and the use of graphics to increase reader engagement. But one of the most interesting sessions that I attended was named “We Regret to Inform You… A Psychologist’s Guide to Dealing with Failure.” Corinne Jorgenson was the speaker/presenter and she was compelling.
She stated that across industries, proposal teams experience more failure than nearly any other profession - roughly 80% to 90% of proposals (on average) do not result in a winning decision. Proposal teams, she stressed, have to build team resilience and employ strategies to find the opportunity in the failure. She called it “Intelligent Failure.”
In the session, she warned of getting stuck in the negative feedback loop and organizational finger-pointing. Blame games cannot be won. She encouraged proposal team bid failures to become a learning journey instead.
She suggested nine steps to overcoming failure and recognize failure as an opportunity:
Recognize and accept the failure.
Embrace your vulnerability.
Avoid self-blame and judgement.
Reflect on what went right and what went wrong in the experience.
Define the lessons learned in a timely manner - the recovery window timeframe.
Embrace a growth mindset.
Set new goals and celebrate the pivot as positive change.
Have a positive attitude.
Take calculated risks.
She said that in order to really learn from failure, management and teammates must act with compassion and courage. She stressed that “an aversion to failure makes experiencing failure more likely.”
I know she is right.
I think to one of my own team’s decision on a proposal software and what a failure it was. My management and peers were split on which vendor to select. Leadership’s vote won the mandate. It was only in the middle of the system conversion that it became apparent that the vendor had not been fully transparent with its capabilities and limitations. The system could not meet our needs. We dissolved the relationship with the vendor. A “not very amicable” annulment that resulted in a lot of “things left unsaid.”
My management team and leadership did not acknowledge the failure. There was no introspection, No looking for causes or lessons to be learned. There were just a lot of uncomfortable questions when business partners, new leadership and industry peers asked, “What happened?” A lot of silence, looking down and feigning confusion replaced real discussion and diagnosis.
What an opportunity lost! Had we the courage, I think my team and leadership could have addressed the failure and examined possible causes to make sure we didn’t repeat ineffective behaviors and mis-communication again. We could have become stronger and smarter. Instead, we never even acknowledged our dysfunction.
Perhaps the proposal software decision is why this session really resonated with me. A longing for a team that wasn’t afraid to see where it is weak in order to shore up skills, strategies and trust. A team that didn’t hide from challenging itself to become better.
Intelligent failure seems the better option. It’s probably the only option for a team that wants to succeed and evolve.
