Fear – Failure - Fortitude

Marc Le Menestrel — 2012-11-26T10:56:00Z

When I stepped down as a professional athlete and started a more "normal" professional life, one of my biggest surprises was people's attitude towards failure. As if “others” were trying to never fail. I had my successes as a rock-climber, but I was very aware of many more failures. In climbing, as soon as I was completing a route, I was trying something harder, and failed. Until success is reached, climbing is like a succession of failures. It does not mean that I looked for failures, but the idea was to fully accept their necessary existence, and to manage the bitter, unwanted feeling that comes with our defeat.

I was therefore especially interested when I was proposed by the Lisbon MBA to design and run a workshop on failure. Its pioneering session on November 23rd, 2012 worked well and was praised by the participants. As an experiential session, most of the content was coming out of them as actors of the learning process. For instance, one of the first sharing from a student was to formulate that

"the opposite of success is not failure, it is not trying".

Indeed, an important key for turning failure into fortitude is to realize that it is part of a learning process.

The central experience of the class is an epic journey, built around the archetypal myth of the hero and its quest. Besides a few words for the guided visualization, we used a musical composition due to Jean-Michel Robert. After having experienced the journey, Jean-Michel composed a 6-part piece using Chinese cymbals, Thailand gongs, electronic music, guitar, oak and other artifacts. I was glad to combine such a beautiful piece of musical art with our work, in the spirit of a deep yet playful endeavor.

At the end of their MBA, and in the difficult economic context of Portugal, the session was timely, allowing students to work on the fear of not finding a job, one of their most important goals for the forthcoming weeks. In the afternoon, another guided visualization exercise helped them to formulate the goal beyond the goal, and thus to reinforce their capacity to confront their actual challenges with full potential.

Description of the session

In this experiential session, participants learn about failures, fears and their role for future successes.

We use the art of conversation, with others and within ourselves, to explore the surprising world of our shadows, and to eventually embrace our experiences beyond the imperative of being always successful in everything.

We give a special emphasis to the distinctions between objectives and dreams, between professional success and self-accomplishment, and between individual and collective failures.

Targeted outcomes

• Increase awareness about failures and fears

• Develop participants power to manage fears and learn from failure

• Increase participants future resilience

Illustration

Beowulf and the Dragon – H.E. Marshall 1908

To go further

Leaflet used by students for their personal learning.

The International Day for Failure, an inspiring initiative of Finish young entrepreneurs, to be celebrated on October 13!

Fail & Learn: Tuuti Piipo, who collaborates to the International Day for failure, has gathered a series of resources and references (articles, videos, books...) around Failure on this Kippt bookmarking service.

Values – Ethics - Decisions

Marc Le Menestrel — 2012-03-12T11:54:35Z

Description

We embark participants in a series of questions, situations and phenomena which make salient their values, their decision-making processes and their leadership attitudes.
A series of conceptual tools and frameworks helps participants to structure their understanding of values, leadership and decisions and prepare them to express their full potential when making decisions.
We give a special emphasis to ethical values and the trade-offs they may entail in business decisions, with the intention of empowering participants to strive in the grey zone of (un)ethical business.

Targeted outcomes

• Increase awareness of the role of values in business decisions

• Develop framework and conceptual tools for facing conflicts of values

• Prepare to become inspirational leaders by your values

Instructions for students

Read in advance of class two short case-studies: “Peter Green” and “The Talking Blanket” and reflect on your answers to the questions raised.