It’s all my fault. No. Really.

Last week a discussion arose in the rented.com office about a failed experiment. Someone asked whose idea it had been, and I immediately said: “It doesn’t matter. It’s my fault.” Those in the room at the time looked at me perplexed. Was I saying the idea was mine? Was I trying to make a joke? Neither, but I explained to them what I meant.

As the CEO, the ultimate decision rests with me. Whether I sign off on a specific action or activity, or decide to give an individual or a group the autonomy to act on their own and ask for forgiveness later, the ultimate decision that led to the outcome, whatever it is, has to rest with me.

This is not a way to claim credit for other’s ideas. It is the opposite. When someone has a great idea, and it succeeds, we want to celebrate it, and share it with the team. At the same time, we know not every idea is great. I don’t want people to be hesitant to come forward with new and innovative ideas for fear of failing. Sure, one way to never have bad ideas is to never have ideas at all. For a company at our stage, that would be the surest path to failure that I can imagine.

Accepting the blame when ideas or experiments fail serves two main purposes. First it indicates that failure is ok. If the CEO is willing to fail, and it does not deter me from coming up with new ideas, then it creates a culture in which others also feel comfortable taking risks. Obviously we want the risks we take to be calculated ones, and ultimately to succeed, but as Adam Grant shows in his new book, Originals, the best way to come up with great original ideas is to come up with even more bad ones.

The second reason I am happy to accept the blame is that it helps to create a culture of ownership. On one hand we want everyone on the team to not just serve themselves, but to serve each other, and the company as a whole. On the other hand, for things to get done, we need everyone on the team to “own” the results. This goes beyond just executing against a predefined playbook. It must embody a true ownership mindset. And with literally every single person who works at rented.com having equity in the company, every single person is an owner. Every single person has a stake in us improving every day we come to work. This means owning our results, good or bad, and owning the ideas and implementation that will make those results even better tomorrow.

So yes, it is all my fault. Now let’s move on and try again.