How To Build A Business Where Failure Fuels Growth

This expert opinion by Steve Sensing, president of supply chain solutions at Ryder System, Inc., was originally published on Inc.com.

A colleague of mine once shared with me a professional philosophy she has come to embrace: not being afraid to fail. In her experience, working within an organization that gives its people the freedom to fail has led to more innovation, surprises, and successes than she’s ever seen. And in reflecting on my own career experiences, I agree.  

I’m not suggesting anyone start incentivizing employees to literally fail; I’m talking about creating opportunities, space, and support for free thinking, collaboration, trial, and even error—within reason, of course—in pursuit of success. 

Turning Setbacks Into Strategy

So, what does embracing a company culture where failure is seen as a bump on the road to success look like, and what kind of progress can it yield, both for employees and for your organization?

• Faster innovation cycles: Teams that normalize failure can test ideas sooner and more often, leading to quicker iteration and discovery of high-value solutions that competitors may overlook.
• Increased employee initiative: Fostering an environment where experimentation is safe empowers employees to propose bold ideas, take ownership, and proactively solve problems.
• Better decision-making: Each mistake generates valuable data on what doesn’t work. Like a scientist tweaking an experiment, these learnings help refine strategies for the next time, improve processes, and prevent larger, costlier mistakes down the line. 
• More opportunities for strategic realignment: The path to success is rarely a straight line. More often, the line fluctuates with peaks and dips, but those dips are marks of progress. Looking at an obstacle as a reality check can prompt reassessment of goals and direction, leading to a better path forward. 

A Blessing In Disguise

Several years back, a client tasked a team within one of our divisions with achieving a certain target within an allotted timeframe. The team did analysis, then, confident they determined the right solution, implemented it. In testing the solution, however, they determined that the solution not only failed, but in fact created a few more problems the team had not initially anticipated.

The solution wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t a fit in this instance. Was this an ideal situation? No, but they were able to quickly pivot and move in a different direction that ultimately achieved the client’s goal. The headline, though, is what this led to. 

About six months later, when another client came to the team with a completely different problem, they realized the solution that had failed for the previous client was perfect this time around. Because they had already tested it, they knew what could go wrong and were able to implement it successfully. Had the team not already experienced things going wrong, they wouldn’t have had the right solution ready to be deployed the moment a client needed it. 

Practice Makes Progress

That same colleague who told me about her discovery of the benefits of embracing failure also pointed out that our company tagline, “Ever better,” supports this philosophy. It’s not often that things are “Ever perfect the first time around.” A healthy company culture is about striving for continuous improvement—being better today than you were yesterday, and better tomorrow than you are today.

Failures aren’t dead ends, they’re temporary detours. Emboldening others to look through this lens fosters perseverance and resilience. In the words of Albert Einstein, “Failure is success in progress.” Setbacks are essential steps that yield feedback, build resilience, and inform the adjustments that will ultimately lead to our greatest achievements.