Website helps organizations learn from past failures
TORONTO, ON - Has your organization ever made a mistake? Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB) has launched a new website dedicated to helping organizations share stories of development initiatives which have failed to reach their goals.
AdmittingFailure.com pulls together stories of poor planning, unsuccessful partnering and unrealized outcomes, with a view of helping remove the stigma of failing and facilitate learning.
"It's a very public way of telling the world that you are a humble, learning organization," says Ashley Good, managing director of AdmittingFailture.com.
Good urges organizations to post their own case studies on the site, so that others can learn from their mistakes. When EWB published their first "failure report" in 2008 they were uncertain how donors would react. It attracted increased funding. EWB now hopes to be a catalyst to encourage others to do likewise.
"Learning from failure is important," she says. "Not seeing it as a nasty 'f-word,' but instead like constructive feedback from a good friend. It's not about pointing fingers. It's about a personal reflection of what you could have done better and lessons learned."
The Salvation Army in Canada has publically endorsed AdmittingFailure.com on its own website. The Salvation Army in Canada is part of Imagine Canada's Ethical Code Program, and has its own avenues for reporting back on projects which are either struggling or have closed.
"We believe in situations like this you should be as honest as possible and be as transparent as you can," says Andrew Burditt, territorial public relations director for The Salvation Army in Canada. "You can't expect your donors to support you blindly. If people are going to support the work that you do, they need to believe they can trust you."
Bridgeway Foundation, a private family foundation that supports Canadian non-profits and charities, has also thrown its support behind the site.
Transparency about a group's failures can send a positive message to potential donors, says Bridgeway's executive director Mark Peterson.
"I value transparency," he says, "and when an organization is able to be authentic with me about their warts that inspires confidence in me to give."
Being able to recognize your own faults and weaknesses, Petersen says, is an important part of knowing yourself.
"When I'm getting to know an organization," he says, "I want to be sure that they know who they are. If they are pitching a project to me, I want to have a sense that it comes out of knowing themselves well and that they know their weaknesses as well as their strengths."
He also finds the practice to be quite biblical.
"I think donors are becoming more realistic," he adds, "more savvy, more understanding of the complexities of doing the transformational kind of work which is done by non-profits. So rosy marketing stories don't cut it anymore. And if that's all I'm getting I'll start to doubt the organization."
Good says she hopes that removing the stigma around failure will encourage organizations to take risks and try new creative solutions to combat the complex issues surrounding poverty and development.
"Admitting failure requires us to be honest and humble about what is," agrees Heather Card, Chief Operating Officer of the Canadian Council of Christian Charities. "Seeing others admit failure in a supportive community helps us not only to learn from others, but also encourages us to step out and take risks. Nothing great is ever accomplished without taking a risk."
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