Seven Ways to Fail or Why the Dinosaurs Became Extinct
Once I worked with a team trying to turn it around. Morale was low. Budgets were lean. The competition was intense. I shared a version of these seven ways to fail. At that time, I called the talk, “Why the Dinosaurs Became Extinct.”.
Don't get me wrong. I know there are many more than seven ways to fail. But I've seen these common traits among people, teams, and projects flailing and failing.
Resist change.
Complain without offering solutions.
Refuse to share what you know with your colleagues.
Don’t listen to what others have to teach you.
Believe things will return to the "way they were."
Criticize colleagues' ideas and efforts.
Believe if you complain long enough and hard enough, things will improve.
These seven ways to fail have in common a propensity to think selfishly about the problem instead of working collaboratively toward the solution.
Spoiler alert: We were able to turn the team’s performance around, not because of my talk, but because we started focusing collectively on solutions instead of letting the problems block our progress.
