TakeAway: Companies are looking for a new way to be innovative by rewarding individuals on their failures.
The rewards for failures vary by company from statues to monetary awards with the hope of generating innovation.
Excerpted from WSJ: “Better Ideas Through Failure”
Amid worries that we are becoming less innovative, some companies are rewarding employees for their mistakes or questionable risks.
The tactic is rooted in research showing that innovations are often accompanied by a high rate of failure.
“Failure, and how companies deal with failure, is a very big part of innovation,” …. Failures caused by sloppiness or laziness are bad. But “if employees try something that was worth trying and fail, and if they are open about it, and if they learn from that failure, that is a good thing.”
A unit of WPP’s Grey Group started handing out the “Heroic Failure” award because he was worried that fast growth at the agency was making employees “a little more conservative, maybe a little slower,”
Extracting lessons from foul-ups is the focal point of Michael Alter’s “Best New Mistake” awards at SurePayroll.
Only people who are trying to do a good job, make a mistake and learn from it are eligible for the $400 annual cash award.
Edited by ARK
Ken’s Take: I always scratch my head when I hear people say that companies punish risk takers.
If GE and Black & Decker had given trophies for ‘nice tries’ that didn’t pan out, I’d need another wing on the house to hold them.
The Homa Files 
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