The most vibrant people are the ones that keep learning throughout their lives. The same goes for businesses. John Gerzema, in his great book, The Brand Bubble, tells us the same regarding great brands. Those brands have to keep learning, evolving and growing to maintain their leadership position.
At our companies, we deal with success and failure daily, but how often do we learn from them? I'm guessing not nearly enough.
When we fail, do we determine why, or do we merely conduct a witch hunt? Do we own up and learn, or do we point fingers elsewhere? The great performers, companies and brands all learn and evolve from those learnings.
Even tougher- do we learn from our successes? Why did that project turn out better this year than last year? Do we know? Have we figured that out, or do we just pat ourselves on the back and say, "We're great."
I think the reason we avoid a deep understanding of why we have succeeded is because we want to also avoid the discomfort of facing those times when we have failed.
Fight just as hard to seek the answers as to why you succeeded as you do why you failed, and you may become that great company, performer or brand.
Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
http://www.labov.com/
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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Learning from our failures may be even more important than learning from successes.
ReplyDeleteSeparately, your blogs all post in the wee hours of the morning. Is this the only time you have left in your day when you can focus on this blog?
Learning from failures is easier because you can better determine what went wrong.
ReplyDeleteRe: your question--I blog when the inspiration hits, no matter when. I'll hsve them sent out early in the morning to make sure they're ready and waiting for the start of the business day.
Now, a question from me. Why not post your real name instead of "Anonymous"?