Encouraged to Fail?
Originally posted on the Blackstone Forge blog by Bill Brooks
We have to embrace failure and almost get a kick out of it. Not in a perverse way, but in a problem-solving way. Life is a mountain of solvable problems and I enjoy that.
- Sir James Dyson
A year ago, I moved to a new company. Like anyone transitioning to a new place, there were nerves, excitement, and an attitude of “Okay, time to figure this place out”. What I did not expect, what I could not plan for, was entering a work culture that would challenge my understanding and definition of what it means to fail.
Failing fast has become a cliché. At the end of the day we’ve all been at or heard of those companies that promote it with their words, but discourage it with their actions and policies. Proclamations of how to deal with failure are not uncommon in the tech field. It’s an accepted fact, that you will make a mistake. Generally, as long as it’s not too big or impactful, it’s okay. To my delight and surprise, at Blackstone Federal, failure moves beyond begrudging acceptance to active encouragement. Let me state that again: at Blackstone I feel encouraged to fail. I am pushed to try new things. There is a rule on my team “if you have experience doing it, you’re not doing it.” It is freeing, you are expected to mess up, to try, to learn, and to then succeed. By encountering failures in an environment like Blackstone’s, we are unconsciously given the ability as a collective unit to truly innovate and grow. Encouragement of failure is liberating. It creates an expectation across our work environment that everyone is doing new stuff, pushing boundaries, building compassion for the complexity of each other’s work, and encouraging growth.
Coming into this job I had played with Docker. I had done the basic tutorial, and turned up an Apache container that I made available locally. However, when I tried to create my own image for a part of my work, I struggled, I failed. I was able to turn to a teammate who has a humongous depth of knowledge and experience with Docker. In many circumstances, when help is needed, the help is that the other person will just do it for you. However, at Blackstone, my teammate Mohammad took the time to understand what I was trying to do, correct my misconceptions, and get me on the road to success. I learned, I grew, and later I was able to repay Mohammad by assisting him setting up BIND.
I have been hesitant to ask for help before, there is frequently a competitive environment in tech. However, here it is free of judgement. It’s a cultural expectation. Help others. We’re not fighting each other, we’re fighting for each other. A culture that embraces failures will quickly become one of learning. Compared to many workplaces, where individuals are hired based on what they’ve done, Blackstone Federal hires based on character and potential. At our core, we are all learners.
From failure, to learning, to sharing. Sharing and teaching often happen quite informally. However, there are a few formal mechanisms Blackstone uses to reach more people. Blackstone Cafes represent an opportunity for people to discuss and present topics they are familiar with to help others that might not be, or to promote awareness of something awesome that they’re doing. We have Build Nights where again, we come together to build something, struggle together, and with guidance from a subject matter expert create great things. For example, we built an IoT coffee pot that sits in our office. It was the result of a Build Night, a collaborative effort that reached out and touched almost every group in Blackstone Federal. We had engineers and non-engineers alike come out and solder, wire, design visuals, and put this thing together.
When you are encouraged to fail, you push boundaries that you wouldn’t normally dare to. This pushing allows for greater growth. This growth makes for stronger people, and at Blackstone these people make for one hell of a family.
How has your organization promoted failure, learning, and knowledge sharing? In the words of Thomas Wayne to Bruce — “Why do we fall?”
Launched in Arlington, Virginia in 2002, Blackstone Federal is the beltway’s premier engineering, transformation, and creative design agency. Rooted in a common culture, Blackstone Federal employees bridge the gap between the beltway and Silicon Valley to create a company unlike any in DC.
Learn more about Blackstone Federal at blackstonefederal.com .
