来源：《哈佛商业评论》2022夏季特刊
“The fastest way to succeed,” IBM’s Thomas Watson, Sr., once said, “is to double your failure rate.” In recent years, more and more executives have embraced this point of view, coming to understand what innovators have always known: that failure is a prerequisite to invention.
IBM创始人老托马斯·沃森曾说：“成功的最快方法是将失败率提高一倍。”近年来，越来越多的高管接受了这一观点，开始明白创新者一直都知道的一点：失败是创新的先决条件。
The growing acceptance of failure is changing the way companies approach innovation. Some build exit strategies into their projects to ensure that doomed efforts don’t drag on indefinitely. Others continually conduct large numbers of market experiments knowing that while most of their tests won’t pay off, even the failures will provide valuable insights into customer preferences. Still others launch two or more projects with the same goal, sending teams in different directions simultaneously.
越来越多的企业接受失败，这正在改变公司对待创新的方式。一些企业在项目中制定退出策略，以确保注定失败的努力不会无限期地拖延下去。其他企业不断进行大量的市场试验，他们知道，虽然他们的大多数试验都不会有回报，但即使失败，也会为了解客户的偏好提供有价值的见解。还有一些企业以相同的目标启动两个或多个项目，同时向不同的方向派遣团队。
While companies are beginning to accept the value of failure in the abstract—at the level of corporate policies, processes, and practices—it’s an entirely different matter at the personal level. Everyone hates to fail. We assume, rationally or not, that we’ll suffer embarrassment and a loss of esteem and stature. And nowhere is the fear of failure more intense than in the competitive world of business, where a mistake can mean losing a bonus, a promotion, or even a job.
虽然公司开始在公司政策、流程和实践等抽象层面上接受失败的价值，但在个人层面上则完全不同。每个人都讨厌失败。无论是否理性，我们都会认为失败后会遭遇尴尬，失去尊严和声望。在竞争激烈的商业世界里，对失败的恐惧最强烈，在商界，一个错误可能意味着失去奖金、晋升，甚至工作。
During his years leading Monsanto, Robert Shapiro was struck by how terrified his employees were of failing. They had been trained to see an unsuccessful product or project as a personal rebuke. Shapiro tried hard to change that perception, knowing that it hindered the kind of creative thinking that fueled his business. He explained to his employees that every product and project was an experiment and that its backers failed only if their experiment was a halfhearted, careless effort with poor results. But a well-thought-out effort that didn’t succeed was not only excusable but desirable.
在领导孟山都的那些年里，罗伯特·夏皮罗被他的员工对失败的恐惧所震惊。他们接受的训练是把一个不成功的产品或项目看作是对个人的指责。夏皮罗努力改变这种观念，因为他知道，这种看法阻碍了推动其企业发展的创造性思维。他向员工解释说，每个产品和项目都是一个实验，只有当他们的实验不够用心、粗心大意、结果不佳时，他们的支持者才会失败。但是，经过深思熟虑而没有成功的努力，不仅是可以原谅的，而且是可取的。
Such an approach to mistake making is characteristic of people we call “failure-tolerant leaders”—executives who, through their words and actions, help people overcome their fear of failure and, in the process, create a culture of intelligent risk taking that leads to sustained innovation. These leaders don’t just accept failure; they encourage it. Failure-tolerant leaders have some common threads in what they do. They try to break down the social and bureaucratic barriers that separate them from their followers. They engage at a personal level with the people they lead. They avoid giving either praise or criticism, preferring to take a non-judgmental, analytical posture as they interact with staff. They openly admit their own mistakes rather than covering them up or shifting the blame.
这种对待犯错的方式是我们所称的“失败容忍型领导者”的特征——这些管理者通过他们的言语和行动，帮助人们克服对失败的恐惧，在这个过程中，创造一种智慧的冒险文化，从而实现持续创新。这些领导者不仅接受失败；而且鼓励失败。失败容忍型领导者在他们所做的事情中有一些共同的思路。他们试图打破把他们与追随者隔开的社会和官僚障碍。他们与被领导的人进行个人层面的交流。在与员工互动时，他们避免表扬或批评，更倾向于采取一种非评判性的、分析性的姿态。他们公开承认自己的错误，而不是掩盖错误或推卸责任。
First and foremost, though, failure-tolerant leaders push people to see beyond simplistic, traditional definitions of failure. They know that as long as someone views failure as the opposite of success rather than its complement, that person will never be able to take the risks necessary for innovation.
然而，最重要的是，失败容忍型领导者推动人们超越简单、传统的失败定义。他们知道，只要有人认为失败是成功的反面，而不是成功的补充，这个人就永远无法承担创新所必需的风险。