Dear Executives and Managers,

The village is a laboratory of sorts, you get to experience so many things. When growing up, we used to dig trenches to trap small animals. One day, my cousin suggested making a deeper, more complex trap. But the elders warned us: What if it collapses? What if we waste time? Out of fear, we stuck to the same old shallow trench. Week after week, no catch. Then, a younger boy barely twelve dug his own, ignored the warnings, and caught a big rabbit. That day, I learned: that the fear of failure keeps you using old tools that no longer work.

Fast forward to businesses the same fear still rules. Leaders loudly declare, “We want innovation!” They host brainstorming sessions, create shiny innovation departments, and even hire “Chief Innovation Officers.” But nothing truly game-changing comes out. Why? Because underneath, everyone is afraid to fail. The leaders punish failure instead of rewarding the attempt.

Innovation theatre vs. real innovation

Let me share with you my experience. During a strategy development project at a financial institution in Kampala, the CEO proudly told me they had allocated Ugx. 2 billion to innovation. They had a new digital lab, hired top talent, and had an “innovation roadmap.” Sounds impressive, right?

But when I deep-dived into the business like a proper doctor diagnosing a patient, I noticed something strange. Every proposal from the lab had to go through six layers of approval. Every idea needed a 40-page business case before even small experiments could start. Worst of all, if a project failed, the team faced quiet punishment budgets cut, bonuses delayed, reputations damaged, and no salary increases.

No one wanted to risk it. Good people started avoiding the “Innovations” department. So what did they produce? Cosmetic upgrades. A mobile app redesign here, a customer loyalty tweak there. Nothing that could disrupt the market. Nothing bold.

That’s not innovation. That’s theatre. And it’s driven by one thing: fear of failure. The fact is, that innovation does not need a department to thrive. All you need is to empower people to think widely without fear.

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“If you answer “no” to three or more, you’ve built a fear factory, not an innovation engine.”

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You say fail fast but punish failure

I see it with many of my clients. Senior managers repeated Silicon Valley phrases like, “Fail fast, fail forward.” But when I analyzed the current team SWOT, the internal threat was glaring middle managers were too scared to propose bold products. Why? Because past failures had been used as career weapons. Miss a sales target due to a new pilot product? You’re sidelined next promotion cycle.

You cannot have innovation where people are scared to fail.

Start by dismantling the fear culture

Here’s the leadership challenge: you, as CEO or senior executive, may say you support innovation but have you created an environment where failure is safe? Be honest. How does your organization react when a project doesn’t deliver expected returns?

Here’s the structured solution I recommend. a) Set clear failure thresholds upfront. Don’t just approve pilots define what level of failure is acceptable and what is not. This clarity removes the grey area where blame games fester. b) Separate experiments from core KPIs. I’ve worked with banks in Zambia where innovation pilots were judged by the same metrics as mature products naturally, no one wanted to take risks. Create sandbox KPIs focused on learning, not just profit. c) Publicly celebrate well-executed failures. During a board strategy retreat in Tanzania, I advised the chairman to start a “Best Lesson Learned” award. Within a year, the number of pilot initiatives doubled.

The failure readiness checklist

Here’s a practical tool. At your next leadership offsite, run this checklist:

  1. When was the last time you rewarded a team for an idea that failed but taught you something valuable?
  2. Do your approval processes allow for small, fast, low-risk experiments without bureaucracy?
  3. Have you personally shared a story of your failure with your team in the past 12 months?
  4. Are your innovation teams protected from career penalties if a project flops?
  5. Do you have a post-mortem process focused on learning not blame?

If you answer “no” to three or more, you’ve built a fear factory, not an innovation engine.

Remember, leaders, rabbits don’t get caught in shallow trenches. And innovation won’t thrive under shallow courage.

Till next week,