Over the past few months, a lot of what our team has been speaking, writing, and studying about relates to the philosophy that it's okay to fail, as long as you are able to learn from it and, in the end, come out achieving success.  After reading our latest study "Use of Testing in Email Marketing" - which concludes by saying "if you're not failing, you're not learning" - I began thinking about how, as an entrepreneur and  business owner, it was extremely important for me to embrace this philosophy early on and realize that it expands to every aspect of business.  I'll be the first to say it, failing isn't fun! Doing so however, can be enlightening and isn't something you should fear. If you fear failure, you will likely refrain from taking risks and experimenting with new ideas that can ultimately move you ahead.  I have gone through the "fail, learn and improve" process numerous times and each time I've learned more about it. One such lesson is that sometimes "the fail" isn't always obvious. The below video is comedy and not relevant to my particular FAIL, but it's a Fail Video worth watching.

There are times when the big FAIL sign isn't held up to alert you, "the fail" is often something you have to keep an eye out for. This eye-opening lesson came upon me in early 2007 when eROI was going through a big transition period accompanied by lot of growing pains. Going though this period certainly made me stronger as a leader, us stronger as a company and created a culture where my employees have a stronger voice and a bigger influence in the ongoing success of eROI -it however was an emotional and professional journey to get to this point and one that I actually documented in a 5 part blog post back in the summer of 2007. If you are so inclined, the entire series can be found in the eROI Days archive for you reading pleasure but to sum it up:  

The Fail

I had assumed that I was connected to the thoughts of each employee and each department because I had a hands-on management approach and frequently interacted socially with my employees.  I assumed that the agency was well aligned internally and that that everyone was happy, felt valued and felt they had a voice, both on a project level and within the agency as a whole.

As I began preparing material for a company retreat, I scheduled short one-on-one meetings with all of my employees where I encouraged them to be candid with me. Through 34 one-on-one meetings over 3 non-stop, emotionally draining days, I learned how wrong many of my assumptions were. Here are a few specific learnings.

The Learnings

As a business owner this particular "fail" taught me...

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2. Keep your eyes (and ears) open for "failures" and when you find them... admit them, learn from them and quickly take action to implement change.
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4. Never assume that informal socializing with employees is good enough. You must regularly meet one-on-one with your employees in a professional, confidential environment where true sharing is encouraged and rewarded.
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6. If given the opportunity, your employees will let you know when the company has fallen out of alignment. If this happens, get their opinions on how improve and let them know you are listening by sharing their suggestions with the whole company.
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8. Take a hard look at what and how much you delegate - you may feel like you've handed over a substantial amount and given up a lot of control over your company - but often you actually haven't. If you want your company to soar, embrace delegation on every level and truly give key pieces of control to your employees.
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10. Get advice from other entrepreneurs. I was fortunate to have co-founded a group, called Starve Ups, of 18 founders of high-growth startups and I received a lot of trusted advice from the trenches. Additionally, I am part of another group of advertising agency owners called Agency Owner Roundtable which is run through the Portland Advertising Federation. Both of these groups gave me pointers of real-world experiences on employee advice, branding advice, and strategic direction that I couldn't get anywhere else.

The Results

Here we are 2 years later and as an agency we've come a long way from the above "fail". We have seen some awesome changes, implemented great processes and overall, better aligned ourselves internally to cultivate better communication, collaboration and creativity.

The "Process Team" we created in the summer of '07, with a representative from each department, continues to be an integral part of implementing ongoing improvements to our process - both between and within departments as well as between us and our clients.

My employees have a voice - and they use it! Although many are comfortable speaking up when they feel there is reason to, we've made it a semi- annual practice to schedule a day of one-on-one meetings where employees are encouraged to meet with not just me, but anyone on the management team, and candidly talk about what they're loving, hating, or frustrated with (i.e. processes, projects, or communication breakdowns). Following these meetings, the management team meets to review and discuss new strategic and performance related goals, as well as create an action plan for any needed change.

On a daily basis I am impressed and inspired by the level of work our team continuously produces as result of the open, collaborative environment we've created.  Of everything that resulted  from this particular "fail" my favorite remains this personal one - As a business owner,  I get an enormous amount of pride and satisfaction seeing my employees being truly passionate about eROI and seeing their continuous ability to reach new levels of synergy as a team, resulting in the accomplishment of work I never thought possible.