WTF

These three letters got my attention in a Forbes article about culture.

They don’t stand for what I thought. Rather, they are a reminder that a good company culture creates employees who are Willing To Fail.

I usually have 10 bad ideas before I have a good one. What I’ve discovered over the years is that each bad idea reveals how the world really is. Once you’ve had enough of them, your correct understanding of the world leads to ideas that actually work.

Every company has goals. To achieve them, employees need to take action. These actions are based on ideas and understandings that might be wrong. These wrong ideas need to be tested quickly before a competitor figures it out and drives you out of business. So you need a culture that encourages failing.

Otherwise, you might find yourself sidelined and thinking “WTF?”