It didn't fail, it just needs more work

I noticed this sketch on the Robotics team captain's notebook. He was planning the organizational structure and is apparently blissfully unaware of the negative connotations of the term "pyramid scheme". Either that or he has a sense of humor and sarcasm that I wasn't aware of until now.


One of the interesting aspects of working with a team of students on robotics (or perhaps on anything for that matter) is they seem to be free of idea censorship. They lack a filter that stops people from trying things because the probability of the idea working is too low. I'm lucky enough to work for a company that is not paralyzed with 'initiative deficiency', you may have seen idea censorship at work or even during volunteer activities; a sense of risk aversion so high there are no new ideas with enough chance of success to get implemented. So instead nothing new gets started. Its the old way or no way at all.

On the flip side, the robotics team tries out some ideas that fail. They pick themselves up, dust off, adjust, and try again. They never really consider these missteps a 'failure', just something that just needed a bit more work.

It's that kind of thinking that might be what a lot of organizations need.