Thank you to everyone who attended our second “TED O’clock” event on November 20, 2015! We had another great turnout!
Not everyone who attended is shown in the picture.
This time, we watched Tim Harford’s “Trial, Error, and the God Complex.” Here were a few of the thoughts shared afterward:
1) Focus, but don’t get hung up on one idea, especially if it doesn’t work.
2) Everyone needs to contribute (this was also covered in Margaret Heffernan’s talk from our first TED O’clock event).
3) Make mistakes in a good direction.
4) People are afraid to fail or try new things because of the error part of trial and error.
5) Our failures need to be celebrated (failure shouldn’t be confused with screwing up, which is making a mistake when you have the information, skills, and resources to do the job…failure is essentially trying something new and not knowing if it will work).
6)”Fire and readjust for facts.”
7) There is power in acknowledgement, so let’s not hide the fact that we are trying something new.
8) Perhaps we should have an award for failing (trying something new and having it not work). Twitter had something called the “Fail Whale” so we might think of something of our own to have.
9) A good example of trying something new and having it succeed is the first part of the Banner XE roll out in the test environment. No one on the team knew how it worked, but everyone got together, owned the work, and made it a success. This is also a great example of being allowed to fail if needed in a safe environment.
10) The group discussed how to fail well in production. While no solid solution was presented, many of the comments about this surrounded having a plan “B” (and “C,” etc.) and being prepared for anything that could happen.
Ultimately everyone in the room felt that the word “failure” had too many negative connotations and that perhaps the idea should be to come up with a better word to use. Suggestions included “sparkle” (“Linda sparkled today!”…this is my personal favorite) and “had a hairball.” Let’s continue to discuss this, because there is value in taking the stigma away from “sparkling.”
What did I miss in the conversation? Please let me know so I can add it in!
Our next TED O’clock will be during half-block. We’ll be watching something a little more fun to ease us all back into working full-time after being masters of our own schedules during the holiday break.
Do you have a TED talk you love? Think it would be a good candidate for TED O’clock? Send it my way so we potentially add it to the list of future TED O’clocks!
I look forward to seeing you at the next TED O’clock!
ITS:Always fun, never boring
Respectfully submitted,
Linda Petro
