Try something new. Most organizations never try anything because they’re afraid of failure. But, failure is learning. The most innovative companies understand that innovation and failure are inseparable twins. They’re not pursuing failure, they’re pursuing learning.

The key?

Failing quickly.

Do you remember Google Wave? It was a product that was ahead of its time. Google Wave was an ambitious project launched by Google in May 2009, designed as a real-time communication and collaboration platform. It aimed to integrate features of email, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking into a single unified workspace.

Wave was created by a small team of engineers who took their 20 percent time to explore the question, “What would email look like if it were invented today?” They produced a new way for people to communicate and collaborate in the Internet Age.

Despite its innovative approach, Wave flopped. It was shut down after a year. Many issues impeded it from taking off. One of the primary reasons was its complicated and overwhelming user interface. Users found it difficult to navigate, which deterred many from adopting the platform.

And, trying to do too many things was another reason that contributed to its demise.

I remember signing up and sending invites to my collaborators. Then using it and being mesmerized by the real-time communication. My collaborators were amazed at the start but never quite got used to using it consistently.

Although it flopped and was considered a tremendous failure, many of its features made their way to other Google products such as Google+, Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Google took away many learnings from Wave and considered it a positive failure.

Why did it fail well?

Because it failed quickly. And, because it inspired other teams to push the boundaries.

Here are the main takeaways for you:

• Learn from your mistakes. Failure is a vehicle for learning. But fail quickly. If you are thinking big enough it is very hard to fail. There is usually something very valuable left over.
• Don’t punish the team that failed. The Google Wave team wasn’t punished because they failed. They were highly recruited to other teams because they pushed the boundaries.

Bottom line: To innovate, you must learn to fail well. A good failure is a fast one. Also, without experimentation, there is no innovation.