How to implement this in your organization

Implementing F?#K Up Nights in your organization can be an incredibly effective way to shift your team’s mindset and encourage more risk-taking and creativity. Here’s how you can do it:

Create a safe, supportive environment

The key to making F?#K Up Nights successful is creating an environment where people feel safe sharing their failures. Start by setting the tone as a leader. You’ll need to go first and share your own stories of failure to show that vulnerability is valued and won’t be met with judgment.

Encourage an atmosphere of learning, support, and humor. It’s important that the tone of these events stays positive and focused on growth, rather than dwelling on the negative aspects of failure.

Tip

To break the ice, you could kick off the event by sharing a failure that’s humorous or light-hearted, before diving into more serious lessons learned.

Share your own failures

As a leader, it’s essential that you model the behavior you want to see. Share a story about a time when you made a significant mistake—something that had real consequences. Be honest about the failure, but also focus on what you learned from it and how it helped you grow.

When leaders are open about their failures, it sends a powerful message to the rest of the team that it’s okay to fail as long as you’re learning from the experience.

Encourage others to share

Once you’ve shared your story, open the floor to other team members. Let them share their own stories of failure, and make sure to reinforce the idea that failure is a normal, expected part of the innovation process.

If your team is hesitant to speak up, you can gently encourage participation by asking open-ended questions, like:

• “Can anyone think of a time when they took a risk that didn’t pay off, but they learned something valuable?”

• “What’s one failure that changed the way you approach your work?”

Keep the conversation positive by focusing on the lessons learned and how those failures ultimately led to better outcomes or personal growth.

Make failure usable

One of the most important aspects of F?#K Up Nights is turning failure into something actionable. After the stories are shared, take time to discuss what was learned and how the team can apply those lessons moving forward.

Encourage your team to think about failure in a new way. Rather than seeing it as a loss, help them reframe failure as an opportunity to gain new knowledge. Ask questions like:

• “What did we learn from this failure that we can apply to future projects?”

• “How can we take this lesson and use it to avoid similar mistakes in the future?”

By turning failures into learning moments, you help your team build resilience and confidence in taking risks.

Celebrate the learning

At the end of each F?#K Up Night, take a moment to celebrate the fact that your team is willing to take risks and learn from their mistakes. Recognise those who shared their stories and acknowledge the bravery it takes to be open about failure.

This celebration of learning is key to reinforcing the idea that mistakes are not to be feared—they are an essential part of growth and innovation.

Create a team culture where learning is the prize of bold action

Embracing failure is one of the most powerful ways to unlock innovation within your team. F?#K Up Nights provide a safe and supportive environment where mistakes can be openly shared, celebrated, and turned into valuable learning experiences.

By encouraging your team to take risks and see failure as part of the process, you create a culture where innovation thrives, learning accelerates, and trust deepens. In the end, it’s not about avoiding failure—it’s about learning from it and growing stronger as a result.