It is through taking risk that we grow as people and grow as a society. It's how we make the world better.
Nowhere is this more true than in the nonprofit sector and social impact organizations. Unfortunately, in many of these organizations, risk can be a four letter word. However, these are also the organizations where healthy risk is often needed the most.
There are two ways we can get better at taking the right risk at the right time. The first is how we define and respond to failure. The second is becoming better and improving performance. This is true in any organization. Let's take these one at a time...
Failure can be defined as the inability to achieve a desired goal or outcome. There are times when it's an end point and other times when it is a necessary part of progress. Either way, it's about the lessons learned weighed against the cost of those lessons. Learning is awesome. The next time I come to you and tell you about a failure... I want you to ask me what I learned and then celebrate with me. If it's been a worthy lesson then smile, give me a high five, and tell me I'm awesome. Let's drink a l'chaim (a toast to life) with my most expensive whisky.
The point of celebrating with me isn't to make me feel better about coming up short. It's to help me persevere and take on bigger challenges that lead to better outcomes.
In addition to changing our response to failure, we simultaneously want to get better at taking risk and improve performance.
This takes me to a place that taught me a ton about managing risk - ski touring in some of the most majestic places on this beautiful planet. One of my favourite things to do is ski up a mountain. It can also be extremely dangerous when done carelessly. Which is why I'm a big fan of the the book Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain by Bruce Tremper.
My favourite part of this book is found on page 20 which provides an actuarial table of life expectancy for someone who skis 100 days per year in avalanche terrain and the snow is stable 95% of the time. A person who makes the correct decision 99.00% percent of the time will expect to die in one year. A person who makes the correct decision 99.99% of the can expect to live 100 years. That's a massive difference from 0.99%.
How many people do you know who make the right decision 99% of the time? To quote Bruce Tremper, "because humans regularly make mistakes, we can't rely on our individual knowledge or prowess to keep us alive. Instead, professionals operate in a SYSTEM, which I capitalize here because it's so important." Professionals use a handful of interconnected tools that work together to achieve a specific purpose. "In contrast, most recreationists operate without any overall system, in a nerve-wrecking chaos in which they repeatedly throw themselves into avalanche path after avalanche path, betting with their lives, depending on little more than luck, which eventually runs out."
Like avalanche safety, when the stakes are high in business, the probability of success increases when we use systems that are simple, complete, and proven. One of the best systems I've ever used is found in the book Traction by Gino Wickman. This book includes timeless business principles put together in an integrated system that when used in the right way and with consistency over time will help you achieve more success than you ever imagined. At least that's what it did for me.
Want to win big? Celebrate when you learn and use a great system. Simple but not easy.
If you're driven to run a great organization and make the world better, then I'd love to gift you a free copy of traction. Click here or reply to this email to claim yours!
About EOS
EOS is a simple, complete and proven system for running a truly great organization. As an EOS Implementer, I help my clients create organizational alignment, execute with accountability and discipline, and work together as a healthy team.