Making the best of crises and valuing the lessons learned from failure

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Last year, we told you how we survived one of the worst crises in the event industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic: how we reacted, fought back, and the model and operational changes we made.

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A year after physical events (83% of our revenue stream) were cancelled, things are slowly starting to pick up for in-person events in some cities around the world and digital events are declining.

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We work a lot on the concept of resilience in our events with corporate clients. Interestingly, the reality was that at Fuckup we had never experienced a major crisis or moment of difficulty. 2020 gave us a taste of our own medicine and tested our resilience as a team and as individuals.

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Since we are all about making the best of crises and valuing the lessons learned from failure, Pepe Villatoro, co-founder of Fuckup Nights, shares five lessons to put into practice a culture that generates resilience and innovation:‍

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‍1.Role clarity: A key characteristic of our culture is that there is autonomy and ownership. If we have to be behind someone to be proactive with improvements and collaboration, it means we are failing. Also, if a person is in their comfort zone and is not learning, challenging and improving themselves, they are certainly not the right person for our culture.

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To foster autonomy and ownership, it is important that there is clarity in a series of concepts that I always imagine as a cascade: Purpose (of the company) → Values → Strategy → Objectives (area and personal) → Key activities and KPIs.

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If a person has understood and internalized these five points, then he/she has clarity of role and can become a creator, not just a Godin "getting the job done".

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Psychological safety: This is another key concept that we work with our clients to generate resilient and innovative cultures. In short, it refers to having a work culture and environment where we feel confident to speak our minds without fear of retaliation. Statistical studies have found it to be the number one characteristic of high-performing teams.

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Psychological safety is always important for engagement at work, but in times of crisis it is even more so because it allows teams to move fast, making mistakes and learning from them to iterate towards what works.

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Better done than perfect: When we are in the middle of the hurricane we want to have results the day before. Ideally, our adjustments and new models should quickly change course for the better. The reality is that this almost never happens because no idea or hypothesis is perfect and does not survive its first contact with the market intact. It is best to do and launch things to learn from user or customer feedback.

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Last year we launched a series of corporate experiences and content that was far from perfect. Because we launched we learned that our corporate clients want it for their teams. If we had waited until it was perfect to launch, we would still be creating the technology without having learned a key complement to our strategy.

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4. Crises show the true nature of people: Extreme moments generate heightened reactions in people. During a crisis, the team member who in normal times did the unglamorous work when no one was watching and expected nothing in return is likely to become a key pillar of culture and results. The person who did things for recognition or personal gain is likely to become a problem when we all have to make sacrifices on behalf of the collective.

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These difficult times can make it easier for you to identify more clearly the people you really count on, some have a more positive attitude and others have a more mercenary attitude and would be better off leaving the organization.

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5. Think long term: During the heaviest part of 2020, many people and companies were running around like headless chickens because they did not have a clear purpose and because they were thinking only about the immediate. You need to think long term to make decisions quickly but in the right overall direction.

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What is long term? I like to think about where we want to be in 100 years when it comes to vision and purpose, because it makes it easier for me to see basic human behaviors. When it comes to strategy or difficult situations I ask myself: What am I going to think about this in 10 years? Which helps me make better decisions that come more from the head and analysis rather than the gut.

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We are still beginning to recover from this pandemic and the economic recession it has generated, but at Fuckup we are faithful believers in living life without filters and sharing to generate abundance. I hope these learnings serve or inspire you in these times of uncertainty. Here we will continue to share our experiences to learn together.

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