Failure is a learning experience, but some companies don’t live long enough to benefit from the lessons. Unfortunately, there’s no way to stave off defeat indefinitely. Once a business is growing and testing its limits, there will invariably be failure coming out of it to help the enterprise redirect its growth. When a company experiences failure, however, bouncing back should be its primary concern.
Unfortunately, there isn’t any roadmap to help companies bounce back from some types of failure. Instead, they’re left trying to figure out the most effective way to reorient themselves while still learning from the lessons the project imparted to them. Below, 16 members of Forbes Business Council look at the best way for a business to bounce back from what may seem like a devastating defeat.
1. Be Honest And Reflective
Failure is a learning opportunity. Be completely honest and reflective. Assess what caused the failure. Was it operations, reliance on a significant customer, a vendor or technology? Once you assess it, then discuss how you may learn from that and improve upon it so as not to let that failure define you. Failure is often fortunate—more growth comes from learning from our failures. – Marty McCarthy, CPA, CCIFP, McCarthy & Company, PC
2. Reset The Paradigm
Aim to reset the paradigm. Uninterrupted success can be dangerous to a business, creating a sense of invincibility and lack of innovation. Thomas Edison thrived on failure. The key is to look at failure as part of the journey, not something to fear or bounce back from. The most important key is the initial mindset. Needed clarity, planning and a course forward are then possible. – Ryan Weissmueller, Fintrepid Solutions
3. Focus On The ‘Expert Zone’
Many times, business leaders are influenced by new and exciting ideas that take them away from their core expertise. This causes them to venture into new pathways with the prospect of business expansion. If an initiative fails, it’s time to advance the core, not advance new pathways. Establishing the single thing that the team are experts in, helps this focus on the “expert zone” of the business. – Catherine Mattiske, TPC – The Performance Company
4. Make Sure You Learn From It
Failure is only failure if you don’t learn from it. You actually learn more from failure than you do from success. Sometimes failure is simply due to not timing the idea correctly, so implement the idea at a later date or with a different market. Evaluate the mistake, figure out if it was an execution issue and get different people involved. The key is to determine the cause of failure. – Joselin Mane, LITBeL Consulting, LLC
5. Don’t Cast Blame
Do not look for someone or something to cast blame on. Blaming one of your team members for the failure can kill future innovation in your company. Do your best to learn from the failure as a team. Even the most well-prepared, well-thought-out and executed ideas can simply fail in the marketplace. – Jordan Smith, Jet Dental
6. Don’t Look Back
The best way to bounce back from failure is to not look back. Take the time to understand what worked well and what did not, fine-tune your approach moving forward and hit the ground running again—not making the same mistake twice. In addition, ask for help. No one person or company can do everything alone. Tap into your network and let people know how they can best help you. – Scott Samson, SamsonPR
7. Be Willing To Try Again
Be willing to try, fail and try again and again. Failure is fertilizer, and fertilizer is what you need to grow to your full potential. You will have regrets, and that’s not only OK, it’s expected. Regrets are a component of failure and failure gives us the fuel and the life lessons to successfully complete the mission. If you don’t have any regrets, you aren’t trying hard enough. – Jason Van Camp, Mission Six Zero
8. Remember Who You Are
Remind yourself who you are and why you are doing what you do. Regroup, research and educate yourself more on your industry. Examine and reflect on what went wrong, and make changes. Most importantly, believe in yourself and don’t give up. – Mitra Ahouraian, Ahouraian Law
9. Build A Culture That Supports Failure
You can do this by embracing a “win or learn” mindset. Allow your team to use failure as a learning experience and take time to reflect on the failure and the learning opportunity therein. We believe in failing forward. Not every idea is going to be great, but we learn from our failures to improve upon our ideas. – Ryan Simonetti, Convene
10. Constantly Verify New Ideas
You are unable to run a business doing the same things for years. In order to grow, you should constantly verify new ideas. The more ideas you verify, the better for the business. Just make sure that you start simple with clear expectations in terms of result and timeframe. If expectations are not met, drop it and start with a new one. If results are positive, add more resources to keep it growing. – Sergej Derzap, Amasty
11. Create New Momentum
You tried something and it didn’t work out. Now it’s all about the recovery. Sit in the failure just long enough to learn from it and then move on to the next idea, channeling your resources elsewhere. Promote a “fail-forward” mentality by encouraging your team to continue feeling comfortable taking risks. This way, mistakes lead to growth rather than permanent defeat. – Chuck Hengel, Marketing Architects
12. Leverage Data And Communicate
Get close to the data and communicate change. Every organization experiences failure, but people want to follow leaders and organizations that are constantly learning. The more an organization understands, both at a macro and micro level, the better they can respond and bounce back. Leverage meaningful data across key perspectives to make quick, strategic changes—and then communicate! – Sabrina Shafer, Transformation Continuum
13. Research The Market You’re Targeting
It is very important to find ideas that solve a common problem and then figure out how to commercialize and scale that solution. To bounce back after experiencing failure, you must spend time with the market you are targeting, get to the root of that market and find out from the source. Sometimes this means offering your product or service for free in exchange for feedback and reviews. – Kadeen Mairs, Dolla Financial Services
14. Stay Focused On Your Goal
You have to maintain focus on your ultimate goal. You must put the failure in context as to how it relates to your ultimate goal. This will give you perspective. You will see at the end that it’s not necessarily a failure but a mere setback. Learn the cause of your setback and keep moving toward your goal. – Brian Diaz, Pacifico Group, Inc
15. Be Cognizant Of Blind Spots
Failure is part of the journey. Each failure should be looked at as a stepping stone to success. Be cognizant of blind spots. Things don’t always pan out the right way. We all have tunnel vision given our experiences. With each failure, we gain more experience which should build a learning curve to pave the way for success. Companies should analyze metrics and build trends to avoid tunnel vision. – Manish Chachada, Cyble, Inc
16. Look Inward For Creative Solutions
Failure is inevitable in business and life. The key is how to respond, react and learn from the experience. The company should look inward, determine what failed in the process or what internal circumstances may have allowed an outside influence to damage their business. Our team and stakeholders help us find creative solutions that we have not considered. – Anthony Luna, Coastline Equity
SOURCE – https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/03/17/16-top-tips-for-bouncing-back-from-failure/?sh=50825ff45126