A story about failure; and how Leaders can learn from it.

Making Chocolate, Switzerland, Christmas 2025. Concentrating hard!

Let me share a story.

A concept was shared in a leadership meeting, it was not a new idea/product/service, but a notable change to an existing one. It was presented with all the shiny new lights, all the benefits, and reassurances that everyone would fine, particularly the customer. The meeting had loads of information sharing.

Exciting ? ✅

Challenging ? ✅

Interesting ? ✅

Opportunity to get in front of our competitors? ✅

Did we want it to work and people to succeed? ✅

Did it seem client focused? ✅

Risky? ✅and ❌

You'd think that would ensure its success, let's go straight to the punchline. After some roller-coaster months it failed and along the way relationships, people, reputation and outcomes undesirably impacted. A little bit about the moments after the announcement.

Was there an invitation to discuss the concept even challenge it? ❌

Was there meetings after the meeting? ✅

Did people voice their concerns in that open forum? ❌

Did concerns raised get robustly discussed and challenged? ❌

Did everyone impacted have an opportunity to contribute to ensure its utter success? ❌

Was there comfort in sharing your perspective openly? ❌

You bet psychological safety is critical to change and innovation. For us, it's not just a concept, it's a lived experience through the lens of leadership. We understand it's critical to High Performing Cultures, having lived it and still living it.

And whilst psychological safety might feel like a recent trend, the concept is as old as leadership. This story dates way back. The environment wasn't ripe to ensure radical change succeed. So here are a few tips;

1. In this example it kicked off well - inclusion was high. Everyone that needed to be involved in the change was in the meeting and information was generously shared.

2. The culture however was one of blame, when mistakes occurred, we looked for "who'd dunnit".

Our workplace culture tool incorporates psychological safety, as does our approach to leadership programs, executive and team coaching. We support leaders and teams get comfortable being uncomfortable, in a way that delivers great outcomes for all.