Comments on: Embracing failure

By: In Development » Sharing lessons learnt on government ICT projects and the use of Web 2.0

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:39:13 +0000

[...] month Jason Ryan blogged about our need to share not just success stories but also mistakes when Government uses social [...]

By: Desarae Veit

Desarae Veit — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:27:31 +0000

This is a good break down of why to why nots for government. I would love to hear more about your idea on the price of failure for big and small businesses as well as how their success effects us all.

Desarae
http://www.dveit.com

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:21:24 +0000

Thanks Martin.

...we need to have persistent conversations with those people charged with designing and managing the accountability frameworks within which they operate.

My take on this is that, if executed as part of an overall communications strategy that delivers on the business outcomes, most of this stuff should be invisible at that level; it should just be part of business as usual. And certainly the cost, when compared to some of the more grandiose e-government initiatives in various jurisdictions over the last decade, should do little to arouse the interest of select committees.

But I would love to hear more of our conversations begin with the phrase, it didn't deliver against all of the outcomes, but we learned about...

By: Martin Stewart-Weeks

Martin Stewart-Weeks — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 04:04:43 +0000

If we want to encourage politicians and public servants to celebrate failure or even, less hyperbolically, just to learn a little from it, we need to have persistent conversations with those people charged with designing and managing the accountability frameworks within which they operate. So start conversations with auditors-general, with officials in central agencies (Treasury, Finance, maybe even SSC???) and with the public accounts committees of our various parliaments – those of us lucky enough to live in countries where we have one of those. I will know we have arrived at a new place when i read the transcript of a PAC hearing where the Director-General of Department XYZ boldly claims “Yes, Senator, we tried this wonderful new online platform but it failed…but we learned such a lot from the process”. To which the Senator on the committee will reply “how interesting; that’s a great outcome. Tell me more about what you have learned from this mistake..”.
I live in hope…

By: Matt Lane

Matt Lane — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:58:02 +0000

A very fine post Jason. Our instinct (not just as public servants but as human beings) is to whitewash our mistakes and accentuate our successes.

This is fine (and to be expected) when marketing a product, person or service, but detrimental when we are designing new products or services based on old ones.

This should not be Web 2.0/Govt 2.0/social media specific epiphany, but I guess it is as we are now, more than ever before, sharing experiences with products, services, communities with others who will not have seen the warts along the way.

We must learn to celebrate (if that is the right word), detail, and share failure. My fear is that this is fundamentally against (almost all of) our nature.

By: del.icio.us links for 25-26 October 2008 « andrewlewin: let me think about that …

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:33:27 +0000

[...] Embracing failure Why ‘failure’ can still be a success for social media in the public sector online. (tags: socialmedia government)[...]

By: iJump.co.nz » Social media news roundup, 20 Oct 08

iJump.co.nz » Social media news roundup, 20 Oct 08 — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:41:32 +0000

[...] State Services Commission’s Jason Ryan writes a courageous blog post addressing the inevitable failures that happen with social media . Inevitable not because social media is flawed, but because it’s new, and implemented by [...]

By: Simon Young

Simon Young — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:06:51 +0000

Fantastic post, Jason. Appreciate your candour and grasp of the issues. Nothing more to add, really, but just wanted to say er, yay!

By: che tibby

che tibby — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:39:35 +0000

indeed. poor or partial committment, badly-conceived plans and a lack of engagement are all the potential death-knell of bad social media.

By: Jason Ryan

Jason Ryan — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:26:02 +0000

Thanks Mike, I have corrected the post. I agree that the results section of the wiki will provide the most value.

@Che: the fact that the tools themselves are cheap should, on the one hand, make it easier to admit failure (and to encourage experimentation), but the total cost to an agency shouldn't be underestimated: as you would well know...