Fast Feedback Over Failing Fast

My article on "Fast Feedback" was picked up by InnovationExcellence.com - one of the largest online publications in the innovation space. Check it out here: Leaders should Advocate Fast Feedback over Failing Fast.

KT82 Trail Relay

Completed the 2015 KT82 Trail Relay this weekend with team Navin's Rhythm (reference to one of the greatest comedies: The Jerk). Managed to take 3rd place in the all-male division with Joe Rammelsberg, Aaron Wilson, Beth Sanborn, Meagan Schneider and Sean Sortor.

Terrain Magazine Article

Received a mention in Terrain Magazine's article on STL's Elite Athletes by Kathleen Nelson.

2015 Iditarod Trail Invitational

Completed the 350 mile Iditarod Trail Invitational for the third time. I managed to get to McGrath in 3 days 10 hours and 33 minutes - my fastest finish yet. Trail conditions were excellent this year which resulted in some incredible finishes across the board, including the new record time on bike by Alaskan John Lackey.

Highlighting my race was the opportunity to travel part of the trip with ITI legend Tim Hewitt, who has completed the trip to Nome 8 times on foot and this last time on bike.

At the ITI 2015 start

Tim Hewitt crosses Rainy Pass on a bike.

Heading through Dalzell Gorge

2015 SHivering Icy Trail Run

Competed in this year's SHITR half-marathon on the Lost Valley Trail in the Weldon Spring Conservation Area. It's an evening/night trail run put on by the folks at Rock Racing. Finished in 1:39:02 which was enough to take first place and get the honor of hosting the new traveling trophy for a year.

2014 Pere Marquette Trail Run

Completed the 7.8 mile Pere Marquette Trail Run at Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, IL. Very challenging, hilly race which is also know as "No Wimps No Whiners". Finished in 1:03:53 for 37th overall (out of 567) and 7th in my age group.
David Grossman, Erin Fuselier, Al Beers, Beth Sanborn and Aaron Fanetti

2014 Castlewood 8-Hour Adventure Race

Competed in the Castlewood 8-Hour Adventure Race on Saturday with Clayton Cummings, Sean Sorter and Brian Hey. Finished in 6 hours 21 minutes, which earned us 2nd place in the 4-person male team division.

2014 MR340

Completed the 9th annual MR340 this week. Left from Kaw Point in Kansas City, MO on Tuesday morning and arrived in St. Charles, MO on Thursday afternoon - 53 hours and 55 minutes later. It was enough to place 9th out of 166 solo racers. Slept only about an hour in Herman, MO during the entire event. It was a hard race, but also a lot of fun.

2014 MFer ("Mostly Flat") 200-mile ride

Completed the 2014 MFer ("mostly flat") ride on Saturday along with Dennis Regelsperger, Beth Sanborn and Mike Bangert. Only did the 200-mile route from Columbia, IL to Grand Tower and back. No takers for really big miles this year,

Dennis Regelsperger, Beth Sanborn, Mike Bangert and Aaron Fanetti

Kayaking the Mississippi

Completed a one-day, 60-mile kayak trip from Winfield, MO to downtown St. Louis on Sunday with Brian Looper. Got to go through the lock at Alton, IL - an interesting experience on a kayak surrounded by massive barges.

2014 Alpine Shop Spring Trail Run Series

Completed the 4 races of the 2014 Alpine Shop's Spring Train Run Series at Castlewood State Park.

• Race 1: 8/154; 7:28 pace
• Race 2: 7/141; 7:38 pace
• Race 3: 10/151; 7:17 pace
• Race 4: 5/143; 7:17 pace

Winter Summit of Mt. Washington, 2014

Spent New Year's with Vanessa McKenzie playing in White Mountain National Park up in New Hampshire. Lucked out and had a clear day when we summited Mt. Washington. Temps on the summit were roughly 20 below with winds at around 80 mph. Brrr.

Pere Marquette Trail Run, 2013

Ran the Pere Marquette trail run on Saturday. Very snowy and icy day. Due to the weather it took much longer to drive over there than anticipated - and I missed my start time. I ended up having to run in the last heat which made it a bit more difficult because I had to navigate through quite a bit of traffic during the race. Finished in 1:13. Fun day regardless.

Castlewood 8 Hour, 2013

Ran the Castlewood 8 Hour Adventure Race yesterday with Clayton Cummings. Cold day. My gloves were frozen stiff and was covered in ice after the paddle down the Meramec. We came in 3rd place in our division.

Hiking the Buffalo River Trail

Spent a few days down in Arkansas hiking the Buffalo River Trail. The first part of the trail was very overgrown - we were trudging through tick-laden grass up to our waist. Not a lot of fun. After a few miles things opened up and hiking was more enjoyable.

Decent trail, but I think next time I'll go back to paddling it.

Whistler, BC

Went to watch Vanessa McKenzie compete at Ironman Whistler last week. Spent remainder of the week playing in the mountains.

On Saturday I did an out-and-back trail run from Nita Lake Lodge through the Whistler village and up to Russet Lake. After Vanessa had (very little) rest from the race, we loaded up the backpacks and headed up to Garibaldi Lake. A very rainy night. We intended to climb Black Tusk the following morning, but it was so overcast there wouldn't have been much to see. Instead, we headed back down the mountain. Beautiful views all the way back.

The next two days we spent mountain biking the cross-country park. It was rainy, but the trails handled it well. Great trails and a lot of fun. After finishing the XC trails, we hopped on the Sea-to-Sky trail and attempted to make it down to Brandywine Falls. Unfortunately, we left too late in the day and lost daylight by the time we arrived. Lacking headlamps, we decided to turn around early and forgo seeing the falls. Next time.

The last day, we grabbed a day pack and made the hike from Nita Lake up to Wedgemount Lake. Long day with a fair amount a vertical - scrambling up a steep boulder field to reach the top. Exhausting week, but totally worth it. Looking forward to going back.

Conquer Castlewood 2013

On Sunday I teamed up with Beth Sanborn to compete in the coed division of the Conquer Castlewood Adventure Race in Ballwin, MO. We took home first place in the coed division with a combined time of 2:11:17 - barely edging out the second place team of Holtman and Hagan by only 16 seconds!

Leaders should advocate “Fast Feedback” over “Fail Fast”

Language matters. This is true whether you’re crafting a clause in a contract or changing the culture of an entire organization. In fact, with a move from “customer” to “client”, a single word helped transform IBM from a product provider into a professional services company. This is because the language of an organization plays a critical role in shaping the thoughts and behavior of its people. For IBM, the word “customer” emphasized transactions and making sales whereas “client” emphasized service and building relationships.

If language plays such an important role in forming the culture of a company, then leaders should find the “Fail Fast” mantra a little unnerving. It’s an idea spawned in Silicon Valley that has gained significant traction in mainstream corporate circles. Today, leaders from start-ups to 100-year-old companies are rallying their teams under the “Fail Fast” banner. Even the venerable HBR dedicated an entire issue to the F-word.

The idea behind “Fail Fast” is simple and smart. Don’t spend a lot of money, time and effort locked in a room developing the perfect product only to unveil it to the world and discover no one cares. If an idea is going to fail, then let it fail as quickly as possible so resources can be redirected to something more likely to succeed. This is the mindset that underpins the lean and agile movements. It's adaptability, not adherence to a specific plan, that is the key to engaging in a poorly-understood or a rapidly-changing market.

Great idea, but “Fail Fast” is a lousy brand with some potentially dire consequences. Yes, failure happens and one should try to learn from it. However, the words “Fail Fast” imply that failure is an acceptable outcome. Even worse, it suggests to the less ambitious that a strategy or a plan isn’t needed at all. Just throw things against the wall and see what sticks. Failed attempts can become nothing more than poor attempts.

Failure shouldn’t be a corporate value – no matter what rate it is happening at. So if failure is not what you are looking for from your organization, then why promote it? At core, the fail fast movement is attempting to provide an efficient method to deal with uncertainty. But it’s not the failure that’s important. It’s feedback – fast feedback.

“Fast Feedback” is the mantra that should drive meetings, process design and new product development. By focusing on feedback rather than failure, leaders avoid inadvertently instituting an intellectually lazy, fail-and-bail mindset. Instead of implicitly excusing failure, when leaders invoke “Fast Feedback” they acknowledge uncertainty, communicate a need to deal with it quickly and encourage a method for doing so. “Fast Feedback” directly emphasizes the right behaviors and requires no special interpretation or background knowledge to understand.

In a “Fast Feedback” culture, conversations don’t stop with the decision of what to try, but rather push further to a discussion of how to learn from what was done and how to do so quickly. As well, organizations focused on “Fast Feedback” ultimately become more data-driven. As teams strive to collect and act on feedback faster, systems and dashboards fueled by numbers naturally begin to steer the conversation and correct behavior.

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In a “Fast Feedback” culture, conversations don’t stop with the decision of what to try, but rather push further to a discussion of how to learn from what was done and how to do so quickly.

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While the test-and-learn ideas underlying the “Fail Fast” mantra are valuable, leaders would be wise to consider the consequences of building a culture using a language of failure. Instead, using “Fast Feedback” as the rallying cry communicates the core ideas more directly and goes further to building an organizational mindset that confronts uncertainty more thoughtfully and effectively.

References:

• Schrage, Michael (2013). Good Leaders Don’t User Bad Words; HBR Blog Network
• Allen, Kevin (2012). How Language Shapes Your Organization; HBR Blog Network
• Markowitz, Eric. (2012) Why Silicon Valley Loves Failures; Inc.com

2013 MFer - One Day, 300 Mile Ride

Completed the fifth MFer ("mostly flat") ride this Saturday. In one day we rode 310 miles out-and-back from Columbia, IL to Kentucky (via Cairo, IL). Started at 6am and finished about 4am the next day. Long day, but lots of fun as always.

Stefan Adams, Brian Looper, Chaz Moreno, Beth Sanborn and myself at the finish.

2013 Indian Camp Creek 9-hour MTB Race

Raced in the ICCP 9-hour MTB race on Saturday. Completed 11 laps covering about 82.5 miles. Finished in 5th place.