Should organisations have F**K Up Fridays?

We have all had them in our work lives; those cringe-worthy moments when everything has gone horribly wrong and you just want the earth to swallow you up. The natural reaction is to hope that the disaster doesn’t cause too much damage and is swiftly forgotten so you can move on quickly. But is this the right way to deal with failures? Isn’t this a time when much can be learned to avoid repetition? If failure isn’t acknowledged, how can you foster a sense of innovation and experimentation, where some failure is inevitable? 

My entire career has been littered with an impressive array of failures, including nearly bankrupting one of my charities by persevering with the launch of a sustainable lifestyle magazine that was so far ahead of its time that only one mainstream chain agreed to distribute it. The chain itself was so sufficiently confused by the magazine’s purpose that it placed it on the top shelf next to their porn titles. It didn’t sell well. 

My attitude to failure has changed to the point where I now feel we should shine a spotlight on what hasn’t gone so well and honestly assess why things didn’t go as planned. This extended to having a brief period where we organised ‘F up Friday’ sessions at work giving people the space and permission to talk about project calamities. 

I now believe that failure goes hand-in-glove with innovation. One of the most successful behaviour change devices developed by Hubbub was a ballot bin which uses a playful nudge technique encouraging smokers not to chuck cigarette butts on the floor. It was one of many experiments we tried in a busy London street, seeking to reduce littering. The majority failed, including trying to ask people to create a pointillism piece of art out of discarded chewing gum - something they were clearly disinclined to do. We had to acknowledge and embrace the potential for failure, as this allowed us to take risks and be innovative. 

The highly successful Community Fridge Network started as just one idea amongst many seeking to reduce food waste in a small town. Most of the other concepts crashed and burned, resulting in the lead sponsor pulling away from the project as it didn’t hit their short-term ambitions. However, if they had stuck with it and backed the one winner, they would have been able to authentically demonstrate how they were helping communities across the UK to cut food waste, save money and eat more healthily. 

Even now, after all these years, failure is never far around the corner. When we launched the Enrich the Earth collaboration, I was determined to create a massive interactive wormery display, showcasing the astonishing way the humble earthworm turns food waste into compost. Many hours were spent talking to designers and experts about turning this pipedream into reality, only to be thwarted by the recognition that earthworms avoid light at all costs - making any chance to create an interesting display virtually impossible. This failure, along with the other activities that didn’t go quite as planned, will be included within our evaluation report on the project to ensure that others can avoid the same pitfalls. 

I do recognise that it is difficult to acknowledge failure. It requires employees to have confidence that acknowledging where things haven't gone well will not negatively impact their career prospects; something unlikely to happen if they are on short-term contracts with little job security. For large organisations there is reputational risk which will need to be carefully handled. 

But I do think acknowledging failure would be healthier for all concerned if a way could be found to share these experiences. This is particularly important when facing global challenges such as climate change. If you read corporate CSR reports, you would probably conclude that we are well on track to tackling the challenge given the range of successful activities taking place. As we know, the science tells us a different story. More honesty around failures could help us to not replicate mistakes and focus on things that are truly making a difference.