Focus - Leadership and Culture Embrace the F-Word
By CAPT Roger G. Herbert Jr., USN (Ret.) Originally published in the Leadership Forum of Proceedings , Vol. 148/1/1,427 January 2022. Used with permission. ailure is not an option. Naval leaders—from the day squadron, a numbered fleet, and a Marine expeditionary force they take their oaths—are inculcated with the idea that are all human social systems subject to the same degenerative failure is not tolerated, “not on this ship, not in this squadron, forces that assault mechanical systems. So, if the engineers not in this platoon, and not on my watch.” Failure-is-not-anare right, then no matter how well human social systems are option leadership is a style generally celebrated in U.S. designed or how assertively it is declared that they will not fail, military and corporate cultures. Many believe it inspires they will fail. excellence. The truth is, it probably does not. Three Pathologies of Never-Fail Culture At best, never-fail leadership institutionalizes mediocrity. Failure-is-not-an-option leadership spawns a culture that At worst, it stifles creativity, inspires rote adherence to suffers from three pathologies. First, never-fail leadership standardized procedures and timidity, and fosters an discourages innovation. For any tactical or technical problem, environment so dominated by a fear of failure that people there is a standard solution—the way the problem has always may be more willing to compromise their integrity than face been addressed—and a best solution. Ideally, the standard the consequences of honest mistakes. Leaders who do not solution and the best solution are one and the same. Often, embrace the f-word forfeit opportunities to practice graceful however, they are not. The authors of the Navy’s “textbook failure and, as a result, increase the likelihood that inevitable solutions” could not foresee every situation. Furthermore, failures will be catastrophic. adversaries incessantly try to use these standard solutions against us. As a result, the standard solution, while always the The root of this problem is that Sea Service culture regards safest course of action politically, may ultimately be the surest failure with fear and contempt, but mostly fear. Personal path to disaster and defeat. failures will not be tolerated. Subordinate failures will not be accepted. Team failures are unimaginable. Marines and Yet, regardless of whether the standard solution is the best, Sailors cheer the clarion call to perfection. Their bosses rest the safest, or perhaps even dangerous, Sailors and Marines easy at night knowing they will be spared those “Sorry to reach for the textbook solution every time if they fear they wake you, but . . .” phone calls because they know the Sword will be punished for an innovative approach that proves of Damocles is permanently affixed above the skull of each unsuccessful. Innovation is just too risky under never-fail trembling trooper. leadership. Natural innovators under never-fail leaders stick to the “good enough” even when they know it really is not. Failure-is-not-an-option pronouncements may be stirring, but they also are unachievable and unhealthy. Without Second, failure-is-not-an-option leaders stifle ambition. failure, there can be no success. The never-fail culture incentivizes mediocrity by introducing disincentives to try anything hard. Individuals and teams that Never-Fail Is Fantasy have been taught to fear failure rarely explore new frontiers. As a result, they leave vast resources of human and corporate Good engineers are trained to assume failure. Every first- capacity unexploited. Never-fail leadership creates a topyear engineering student knows that any nonequilibrium system—a category that includes all human-engineered systems—will degrade and ultimately fail. Armed with the knowledge that degradation and failure is a matter of when and not if, engineers focus on how. They attempt to forecast the moment of failure and then design their bridges, rockets, and computers so that when they degrade and fail, they will do so gracefully and not catastrophically. Graceful failures are anticipated, controllable, and, most important, they can be recovered from. Catastrophic failures, by contrast, are unmanageable and often disastrous.
F
Like engineers, military leaders design and manage nonequilibrium systems. But the systems they are entrusted with are much more complex—and therefore more fragile than anything engineered in the shipyard. The systems they lead are human social systems. A ship’s deck division, a Marine rifle company, a SEAL platoon, a ship, a submarine, a Rotor Review #155 Winter '22
SEALs: Failure is not an option
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