Wrong is in vogue. A song by Depeche Mode is named “Wrong.” Seth Godin blogged about failure:http://bit.ly/fGNB1kKathryn Schultz presented at a TED Conference about the importance of being wrong. http://bit.ly/gD0kPm

Kathryn said being wrong is the source of our creativity.

In the Optimize Phase of LEO, we try to be wrong. We test variations of our best design concept from the Enrich Phase. We test the variants we expect to be good.  We test other variants we expect to be bad. If the expected good are really bad or if the expected bad are really good – we learn. We even learn if the good are good or the bad are bad in a manner different than what we expected. We learn as long as we’re wrong aboutsomething.

Tom Kelly, the founder of IDEO, once said “Fail early and fail often.”

Failure is the key to creativity.

Design failure into you development process. Assure that many low-cost failures occur before you send your products or services to your customers.

Reward failures during the design & development process.

“Great job, Jim,” say to your employee, “that idea of yours was one huge failure!”

The worst result in the Optimize Phase is to be right. Don’t fear being wrong. Don’t avoid it. Being right is the most dangerous result. We gain no knowledge. We remain ignorant. We happily avoid creativity, invention and insight.

Be wrong to be right.