Failing and Failing Forward with Ashley Good, Founder and CEO of Fail Forward

From A People Perspective

Ashley Good, CEO and founder of Fail Forward, discusses the importance of embracing failure and creating a healthy relationship with it. She shares her personal journey and the inspiration behind starting Fail Forward.

Takeaways

• Failure is a natural part of life and should be embraced as a learning opportunity.
• Creating a healthy relationship with failure involves destigmatizing it and having open conversations about it.
• Organizations need to shift their mindset and embrace risk and innovation in order to adapt to a rapidly changing world.
• Embrace failure as a learning opportunity and create a culture that allows for open discussions about what didn't work.
• Focus on the small things that you have control over and gradually build the skill of killing low-value work.
• Challenge the bias towards constantly being busy and prioritize the right things over doing things right.
• Develop a healthy relationship with failure by practicing self-compassion and giving yourself grace.

Chapters
(00:00) Introduction and Door Number C

(03:00) Aliens and Favorite Albums

(06:01) The Importance of Failure

(10:11) Grocery Bag Indulgences

(13:32) Ashley's Journey and the Birth of Fail Forward

(23:30) Selling Failure as a Business

(27:26) Why Failure is Hard for Us

(31:20) The Importance of Learning from Failure

(35:09) The Momentum Around Failure

(36:37) Saying No to Low-Value Work

(37:39) Embracing Failure as a Learning Opportunity

(41:45) Killing Projects and the Value of Retrospectives

(50:57) Challenges of Work-Life Balance and the Pressure to be Busy

(01:13:31) The Importance of Self-Compassion in the Face of Failure