David Whyte, in his book The Heart Aroused, tells the story of a conversation between Thomas Edison and his foreman at the time they were working on ways to produce a filament for a lightbulb. Whyte writes:
“Late in his life, Edison was working on a problem of illumination: how to construct a filament for his brand-new electric light bulb, one that would not burn out, as every material he tried seemed to, in the briefest of instants. He had teams of experimenters working on the problem around the clock for months. Finally, the foreman of the works came to him, cap in hand. ‘Mr. Edison, I am sorry to say we have done a thousand experiments and worked thousands of hours to find this filament and I am afraid to say, it has all been for nothing.’ Edison looked back at the man and said, ‘Nonsense, we know a thousand ways in which it doesn’t work!’”
For the foreman, the numerous experiments had all been for nothing – a failure. For Edison, each experiment had yielded new information, providing valuable feedback on ways that didn’t work and allowing the team to focus their attention on finding new approaches.
As much as any other story, this anecdote illustrates what it means to live from the belief that there’s no failure, only feedback. When we allow ourselves the option to try with no guarantee of success, we are likely to be more open to trying out new approaches and to testing whether or not they work. Over time, we become more flexible and adventurous in our approaches and more open to change. Clearly, these are qualities that many employers yearn for in their staff. What’s more, to be able to live with ease at the thought of trying something and finding it doesn’t have the outcome we intend is to create a platform for sustainable health and high performance.
As coaches – whether professional coaches or leaders in the workplace – understanding the principle that there’s no failure, only feedback allows us to come to coaching with an open curiosity. What outcomes is the person seeking coaching wanting? What actions do they want to take? Which of these actions works and which doesn’t? And what’s next? Rather than put those we coach in the wrong, we are able to explore their experiences with them in ways which invite new insights and open up new avenues of exploration.
Coaching from the belief that there’s no failure, only feedback also implies being open to a variety of outcomes from our coaching. If we do not have a need to be “right”, for example, we can give feedback and make observations without any attachment to a particular response. Sometimes the immediate response to feedback may well be a denial or blank incomprehension – to begin with. Given space to reflect, though, as well as a license for our observation to be true and for the individual still to be OK, the person receiving our feedback may well come back and say, yes, I thought about it and I think you may be onto something.
If you would like to learn more about the presuppositions that underpin coaching or to undertake exercises to test and develop your own presuppositions, keep reading. In the coming days, I’ll be exploring additional presuppositions and offering exercises for you.