Getting it wrong can be the best way to get it right
Getting it wrong can be the best way to get it right
Back in my 20s, I had landed a plum assignment at the agency I worked for at the time. I had been partnered with Grant, an Art Director I enjoyed collaborating with, to research about a dozen U.S. grocery businesses to audit how they approached the packaging and marketing of their private label brands. Our insights would shape our agency’s presentation to our client on how to position their new private label venture.
But as we got closer to the presentation date, I checked in with Grant only to find that the work no longer resembled what we had initially drafted.
Grant explained that the day before, our boss took our files, pulled an all-nighter and re-did the entire assignment. She didn’t ask me any questions about my thought process. She didn’t make any suggestions on how she thought it could be better. She didn’t even bother to tell me she made changes, let alone why she felt those changes needed to be made.
At first, I was embarrassed that I got the assignment so wrong that my draft wasn’t even worth salvaging. But embarrassment quickly turned to anger, when I realized that my boss’ analysis wasn’t better than mine, it was just different and with no rationale as to why. Left feeling deflated, the experience was the deciding factor for me to leave the agency.
Today I lead my own firm, and like most managers with decades of experience, I have a pretty clear idea of what I want. When the team doesn’t deliver it exactly the way we would do it ourselves, it can be easy to assume that it’s because they’re not capable. Or that they just don’t get it. But while to “just do it myself” – like my old boss – may seem like the faster solution, it certainly doesn’t foster a connected and engaged team long-term.
You need to let people make mistakes and get it wrong on the road to getting it right.
Inspiring work is challenging work. So if we want to build a self-managed business, we need to give up control to make room for our teams to develop their skills, their ownership of the brand, and their sense of accountability when things don’t go well. My colleague Marawan puts it this way: “You need to let people make mistakes and get it wrong on the road to getting it right.”
I’m sure my boss did not intend to steamroll my work. Her years of experience brought valuable insights to the project. If she had taken the time to work with me, versus take the work from me, I may have learned something from her. She, too, may have benefited from my perspective – and together, we could have made an even stronger presentation. But we’ll never know because I felt no sense of ownership over my work, and ultimately I had no loyalty to the business.