Most of the time, the mere possibility of failure paralyzes us, preventing us from trying out any idea we come up with.
Did you know that 40% of employees think that there’s a negative impact on people who lead a project that doesn’t go as expected?*
Our Fear of Failure workshop challenges the idea that when 9 AM arrives, we must become non-sentient beings who focus on productivity.
During the workshop, we try to decipher all those emotions that surround failure. Because, most of the time, the mere possibility of failure paralyzes us, preventing us from launching that good idea we came up with.
Fear is a basic emotion and helps keep us alive. However, as we explain in the workshop, fictitious fears that occupy our thinking cause us to live a life that seems so full of obstacles.
When we talk about Fear of Failure, we’re talking about businesses, ideas, or projects that get stuck in the "what if". In a professional environment, we face the fear of jeopardizing our professionalism, our reputation, or our credibility if something doesn’t go as expected. We don’t want to fail our colleagues or bosses, we understand that there are expectations on us and not meeting them terrifies us.
We have realized the importance of opening safe spaces where people can be vulnerable. Talking about fear in our workspace means showing vulnerability -and that’s something we’re not used to do. Although in recent years we have seen a boom in "mental health at work" issues, it’s still complicated to share our emotions openly with our colleagues or bosses.
Shame and guilt look alike but they’re not the same. During the workshop, we unravel the differences between them and provide insights to manage those feelings.
The closing activity is called “share the failure”. It's about sharing a failure story in small groups of 3 or 4 people. In this case, the story has to be related to the feelings of fear, shame, guilt or any other negative emotion caused by the failure.
What we try to trigger with this dynamic is a feeling of liberation, complicity, empathy, and mutual support. We take off the mask to realize that we're all the same and feel the same.
The intention is also to find ways to manage our fear of failure, and to discuss some tools that can improve team work in a simple and immediate way.
We propose this workshop as the first in a series of five:
- Fear of Failure
- Psychological safety and vulnerability
- Managing failure
- Communication and difficult conversations
- Innovation
The reason why we suggest that the Fear of Failure workshop be the first one is that it touches on a fundamental topic such as the origin of this fear. This means that it’s only the first step toward building a Failure Culture based on initiatives that seek tangible results in the short, medium, and long term.
These results have to do with productivity metrics, talent retention, employee well-being, as well as employee engagement and commitment, and employee turnover.
However, just like all our workshops, we deal with taboo topics here. Which brings us to another case where this workshop would not be ideal for your company:
Talking about how we feel or the things we are afraid of can cause rejection and people may not choose to be vulnerable during the group activities.
Opening this space is the first step to achieve a cultural change in your organization. A safe space where people have total freedom to propose ideas, test them, fail and communicate them. All without any fear, shame or guilt. This will bring benefits for the company by helping people feel happier and therefore becoming more productive.
The Fear of Failure workshop is also part of The Failure Program, our data–based and solution-oriented bundle of services for those organizations that want to make failure work for them based on the vulnerability, authenticity and freedom that comes from welcoming something as natural and human as fear.
Fill out this form and let's collaborate to bring this or other workshops to your company.
*Source: Failure Survey 2021-2022
Editado por
Raquel Rojas
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Transformemos nuestra percepción del fracaso y utilicémoslo como catalizador del crecimiento.
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