Most conference programs focus on success stories and examples of leaders who have taken the right path to get positive results. Those kinds of case studies make sense. After all, attendees want to recreate those positive outcomes for themselves and their organizations.
That’s the opening paragraph for Creating a Safe Space for Failure, by David McMillin for PCMA, the world’s largest, most respected and most recognized network of business events strategists.
In the article, David quotes me speaking about Fail Festivals:
“Everyone enjoys talking about successes and how great they are,” Wayan Vota, a failure festival consultant, told Convene. “That’s good marketing fluff, but it’s hard to learn from successes. The presenters are so focused on making it sound like a success that they gloss over the issues and the stumbling blocks they faced,” he said.
But “real learning comes when you talk about what didn’t go right. I usually coach presenters to think of the failure that moved them to change the way they work or live,” Vota said.