What is it that we do, when we fail?

No one seems to like failure these days. But what does failure even mean? Is it merely an antonym of success? Then what does success mean? If one does not succeed, does one fail?

But of course we are not asking these questions in a generic, linguistic sense here. The output of our work as CSOs is often narrated in the form of success stories now. These are stories of radical transformation, of ‘before’ and ‘after,’ where the inputs provided by nonprofits change lives in positive ways, thus translating into ‘impact.’

Real life though, the lives of team members who work in the field, that of community members, and of other stakeholders from the system who we work with, are messy and unpredictable. These are beyond perhaps the easy calculations of our input-output metrics.

So, how do we make sense of our work? How do we figure out whether our efforts are making a difference? How do we gather ourselves together, when we have failed in the eyes of others in our work? How do we manage emotions within the team, when a funder does not renew a project, despite we doing our best, because they feel it will not scale or because the work is too resource intensive?

Perhaps getting back to the basics will help. The first point to remember is why we are here in the first place – because we believe that a different world is possible – a world in which everyone has a chance to change their lives for the better, where each one is treated equitably, where public systems do not discriminate between people based on caste, class and religion, and even the poorest of the poor can lead lives of dignity and respect.

This is a worthy goal. No matter which part of the garden we are trying to cultivate, it is still a tiny patch. But it is an important patch. Without our weeding, planting and watering, it will remain barren, at least much less lush. And much of this work is long-term, even generational in nature. Therefore, not to succeed, does not necessarily mean that we have failed.

Social reality is complex. Despite our best efforts, we might not always be able to control and optimize all the factors in an intervention. When we ‘fail,’ it is perhaps best to do a little thought experiment.

It might be quite salutary to imagine the various possible scenarios in the given field, if we would not have intervened. This will alert us to areas that could be probable blind spots. It may also help us plan our interventions better.

While talking about failure and success, we also need to be aware of unintended outcomes. Even when we do not produce the impact we had envisaged, every social intervention does produce some outcomes. Being mindful of this is critical.

Sometimes, the long-term consequences of so-called ‘success’ may be debilitating, both in an organizational and in a societal sense. And what we see as ‘failure’ may actually turn out to be a space of learning, re-grouping and reflecting, and thus of regeneration.

The fact remains that some, if not most, social sector interventions will fail. As a community, we have perhaps become overly focused on claiming success, as we chase after indicators for impact. The desire for impact directly ties in with the mushrooming of ‘success stories,’ and arguably with the crisis of well-being in the sector. Despite the complexities and ambiguities in the field, if we want to create equitable outcomes at a societal and systemic scale, we must truthfully accept our realities. This is not possible, if we do not accept failures as a natural part of any process of experimentation and making efforts. If we were to reflect honestly, we might realize that a large part of what we take to be impact, are actually outcomes. Some of these are perhaps not even ultimately desirable. Seeing failure as integral to life, and being modest about what we are trying to do in the sector, may perhaps help us in becoming personally reflective and reflexive as social actors. It may also help us become process-oriented and well-being centered as organizations.