By Christopher Stevenson
The other night, NPR's Fresh Air aired an interview with Huw Cordey, one of the producers of Planet Earth, the BBC's nature documentary series. As Cordey described how the BBC allowed producers to try things that might never pay off, like trying to videotape elusive wild camels in the Gobi Desert, he hit on a key to innovation.
"That was the great thing about Planet Earth, is that we were given the opportunity to fail. And I know that might sound odd, but that was why we in the end probably filmed the things that we did, because we had the time and the resources to try things that people hadn't tried before."
Ain't it the truth? Greatness comes through doing things that no one else is doing. But that can't happen unless we're willing to put our money and time on the line and allow a little failure. It can be tough to do in a traditionally conservative business, but if credit unions want to remain relevant, they have to innovate, and they can't innovate without a culture that permits some failure.
Christopher Stevenson is CUES' professional development manager and one of two main contributors to the CUES Nexus blog.
Read more in our innovation archive.
