Groups Never Admit Failure
Groups Never Admit Failure
Section titled “Groups Never Admit Failure”
Metadata
Section titled “Metadata”- Author: nav.al
- Full Title: Groups Never Admit Failure
- Category: #articles
- URL: https://nav.al/failure
Highlights
Section titled “Highlights”- I was on the board of a foundation that was charged with giving out money for a cause, and I found it very disillusioning because what I learned was that no matter what the foundation did, they would declare victory. Every project was victorious. Every project was a success. There was a lot of back slapping. There were a lot of high-sounding mission statements and vision statements, a lot of congratulations, a lot of nice dinners—but nothing ever got done.
I realized this was because there was no objective feedback. Because there is no loss—it’s all social profit—they couldn’t fail. And because they couldn’t fail, they misdirected resources all day long. And eventually, of course, such groups run out of money.
- Tags: #favorite
- Note: cf. the absolute refusal of so many groups I’ve worked with (HSC in particular) to set any goal at all that might not be reached.