WebJunction

The Power of Failure
December 1, 2007

Taking risks can contribute to both personal growth and career development. Failing is a devastating result, but as opposed to it being the end, failure can be another step towards success.

In Celebrate Failure, Richard Watson suggests ways to make failure an acceptable part of the workplace, such as:

• Set a failure target as part of each employee's annual review.
• If projects are a failure, kill them quickly and move on.
• Create a failure database as part of knowledge management.
• Set up annual failure awards. If this gets too successful, stop it.

Practices such as these can encourage library staff to tap into their creative sides and suggest new ideas with confidence. Check out WebJunction's course on Motivation, which includes a discussion on how to correct mistakes without damaging motivation.

Are you wondering if implementing a new technology at your library will succeed or fail? WebJunction has a discussion forum devoted to Emerging Technologies and the Web. Read about the potential and future of blogs, wikis, IM, and other social software tools in Social Software and the Rural Library. For an easy list of resources derived from this In Focus Webinar, check out these Quick Links.

Have you gained important wisdom from a failure in your career or library? Perhaps you have a success story that wouldn't exist without the failures that occurred along the way. Share your story with WebJunction, just email content@webjunction.org.

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