Step

13

Don’t get feedback on your actions

Quote to avoid

“To learn anything other than the stuff you find in books, you need to be able to experiment, to make mistakes, to accept feedback and to try again. It doesn’t matter whether you are learning to ride a bike or starting a new career, the cycle of experiment, feedback and new experiment is always there.”

Charles Handy

People often ask me: “Have you ever got anything right the first time?” I can think of only three times. Each time my wife and I decided to try for a child. She got pregnant immediately, first time, every time. Still, I can’t take credit for this because, at least on my behalf, it was only 30 seconds’ work. Other than that, most people aren’t going to get it right even after their fortieth attempt.

According to business guru Tom Peters, it takes the Sony Corporation of Japan just five working days from having an idea about a new product to having something it can test in the marketplace. Guess how long it takes most companies? Tom says on average up to 11 months. Why? Because Sony isn’t chasing perfection, it’s just out to get some feedback that it can then build into its next attempt. Whereas the mantra that always goes up from the typical Western research and development department is: “Oh, please, if you just gave us more time and more money this would be so much better. It’d be just perfect!” The thing is, even if you gave them all the time and money in the world, it still wouldn’t be right. And you’d be waiting an eternity before you could find out whether customers liked what you’d got. It’s a bit like the young lady who once asked me: “Do you give private lessons in public speaking?”

Well, that’s really going to work, isn’t it? What are you going to do – practise in front of the mirror until you are perfect, then go and speak in front of a thousand people? No, you need to get out there and get feedback, no matter how you’ve done, sooner rather than later, if it’s going to be of any use. Or come on my Presentation Mastery Workshop where you will be given loads of opportunities to fall flat on your face but in a safe, supportive environment.

Failure, remember, is an unconscious habit. How hard can it be to give up the first time you don’t get what you want? So don’t even think about trying some other approach. Just throw in the towel. Finally, remember that if you don’t have a clearly defined outcome and no goals to aim for, you won’t even get started in the first place.

“How hard can it be to give up the first time you don’t get what you want?”

Action not to take

“Losses aren’t a waste of time. They are an apprenticeship,” says Greg Norman, the golfer. But what would he know about it? Don’t buy into the belief that anything worth doing is worth doing badly at first.

Don’t give yourself permission not to be perfect. Don’t follow ­General Patton’s advice when he said: “A good plan violently executed now is far better than a perfect plan carried out next week.” Instead insist it has to be right first and every time. You are not going to act until it is. This level of perfectionism should keep you immobile for long periods of time.

Don’t have any means of getting feedback. If someone accidentally gives you some feedback on what you’ve done, treat it as criticism and ignore it. Oh, and tell them to mind their own business in future. Of course not all feedback is constructive. This is how the playwright Samuel Beckett attempted to encourage an actor who lamented, “I’m failing.” Beckett said, “Go on failing. Only next time, try to fail better.”

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